Rav Dessler and free will

Rabbi Dessler concludes his discussion by advising us that this bechira-point does not remain static:

With each good choice successfully carried out, the person rises higher in spiritual level; that is, things that were previously in the line of battle are now in the area controlled by the yetzer hatov and actions done in that area can be undertaken without struggle and without bechira. And so in the other direction. Giving in to the yetzer hara pushes back the frontier of the good, and an act which previously cost one a struggle with one's conscience will now be done without bechira at all.

Think of those choices that often confront you where you really do experience the possibility of going either way. Do you waver over the second piece of dessert? Is reaching into your purse or wallet a struggle with an uncertain outcome? Do you know you should call or visit a sick friend, and yet you hesitate and vacillate over actually doing it? Do you look at the sink full of dishes and lean this way and that way and back again and go all around over whether the responsibility is yours?

These points represent the greatest potential to ascend spiritually.

Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler has given us a very helpful concept to help us understand this give and take, push and pull we experience whenever we try to do something that reflects our ambition to elevate ourselves. He identifies what he calls the bechira-points in each of us. The word "bechira" means "choice" in Hebrew, and refers to our free will. There is, Rabbi Dessler says, an inner battle-line that is drawn right at those places where choice is very alive for you, where you really could go either way with a decision. He illustrates what he means by referring to a real battle:

When two armies are locked in battle, fighting takes place only at the battlefront. Territory behind the lines of one army is under that army's control and little or no resistance need be expected there. A similar situation prevails in respect of territory behind the lines of the other army. If one side gains a victory at the front and pushes the enemy back, the position of the battlefront will have changed. In fact, therefore, fighting takes place only at one location.

With our inner struggle, the battle takes place only at one point.

This image describes the situation we ourselves regularly face whenever we try to do anything that involves an exercise of choice. If it is an easy choice where your values and appetites are well-established, you don't experience any struggle at all. Nor is it any harder when the choice is so far outside your interests or potential; then you aren't even tempted.

Rabbi Dessler zeroes in: "Free will is exercised and a valid choice made only on the borderline between the forces of good and the forces of evil within that person."