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August 13, 2004/Av 26 5763, Vol. 55, No. 47
To do good or evil? We are free to choose
Torah study
JOEL R. SCHWARTZMAN
Re'eh/Deuteronomy 11:26-16:17
The basis of our social covenant in America, as the television program "Law and Order" repeatedly asserts, is that human beings have free will. This is true for all Western society. There could be no concept of justice without it. If our upbringing, environment or addictive natures were sufficient to excuse us from accountability for our actions, we would have no need of our courts of law, for there would be no way to hold people responsible for their deeds. The rationale behind our criminal justice system would disappear. We would be free from any of the consequences of the things we do.
The foundation of Parashat Re'eh is a statement by God to the Israelites. As the Eternal is about to reveal to the people a myriad of laws covering everything from morality to ritual, from civil to criminal to social law, God explains that we have the choice of whether to obey or to ignore these strictures. We have free will. But this gift also carries its concomitant consequences. God tells the people: "See, this day I set before you blessing and curse: blessing, if you obey the commandments of Adonai your God which I enjoin upon you this day; and curse, if you do not obey the commandments of Adonai your God, but turn away from the path which I enjoin upon you this day and follow other gods, which you have not experienced" (Deuteronomy 11:26-28).
Focusing on this critical concept enables us to help ourselves and others incorporate self-responsibility into every decision. It places the onus upon each of us to make just and prudent choices, decisions and judgments. We dare not fall into a pattern of believing that someone else will come along to salvage our bad decisions or save us from them. Choice is the underlying reason the Reform movement gave up the need for and belief in a messiah who would one day bring judgment, and perhaps salvation, to the world. The fact that God imbues us with free choice mitigates the need for a messianic figure.
God tells us in the first lines of Genesis that God has created a world that is good. Over and over again we are told, both in Torah and in Pirkei Avot (3:19), that we have the power, the awesome power, to choose how we shall live our lives. Later in Deuteronomy, Moses emphasizes that the keys to Torah aren't in heaven or in some far-off place, but are readily accessible to each of us. We are capable of learning and, more importantly, are autonomously endowed with how we shall play out our lives.
God provides us with a good world. He has created us with propensities for doing good or doing evil, the yetzer tov and the yetzer hara. God urges us to study and obey God's commandments and to do what is right and decent and good. But the choice is ours. We must not approach life with the notion that we can lay the responsibility off on others or on some messianic figure. Given the state of our world, the quicker humanity realizes the burdens and the blessings involved in the gift of free will and choice, the more hopeful our future will become.
When people realize and accept accountability for themselves and their actions, then, echoing the tune "Somewhere over the Rainbow," which ends, "Why, oh why, can't I?" we'll be able to sing of that special place to which we aspire, "Why can't you and I?" as we all choose to work together toward a messianic age of harmony, cooperation and peace.
Joel R. Schwartzman is the rabbi at Congregation B'nai Chaim, Littleton, Colo.
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