Baruch Atah Ado-nai Elo-henu Melech Ha'Olam, asher kidshanu bemitzvotav ve'tzivanu, la'asok bi'divrey Torah. Praised are You, Ado-nai Our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who made us holy with the commandments and instructed us to study Torah.
(26) Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: (27) the blessing, if you shall hearken unto the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day; (28) and the curse, if you shall not hearken unto the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which you have not known.
(8) You shall not do after all that we do here this day, everyone whatsoever is right in his own eyes...
(19) when you shall hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep all God's commandments which I command you this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the LORD your God.
(15) See, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil...(v.19, 'choose life'.)
(טו) הכל צפוי, והרשות נתונה, ובטוב העולם נדון.והכל לפי רב המעשה.
(15) Everything is foreseen, and freewill is given, and with goodness the world is judged. And all is in accordance to the majority of the deed.
Rashi to Avot 3:15
'Freewill is given': It is given into the hands of each human being, as it says, "See, I have set before you this day life and good..."
Rambam (Maimonides) to Avot 3:15
The reality is not like Rabbi Akiva describes...Do not think that in God's blessed existence God of knowing [all human] actions that anyone is compelled...to do any particular action amongst all actions; rather, each person decides what he will do.
Maimonides (Guide for the Perplexed)
Misled by the use of the term"knowledge," people believed that all that is requisite for their knowledge is requisite also for the knowledge of God, The truth is "that the fact that God knows things while they are in a state of possibility—when their existence belongs to the future—does not change the nature of 'possible' in any way; that nature remains unchanged; and the knowledge of the realization of one of several possibilities does not yet affect that realization" ("Moreh," iii. 20). - From Jewish Encyclopedia.com - Joseph Jacobs and Isaac Broyde, 'Free Will'
Gersonides (13th-14th c., France)
According to him, all sublunary events are determined by the celestial bodies. Man, however, may successfully oppose their determinations in so far as his own person is concerned. God knows all that is determined by the celestial bodies; but as man's freedom may annul their determinations He knows them only as possibilities. "To affirm that God knows the possible only as possible is not detracting from His supreme intelligence, for to know things as they are means to know them well" ("Milḥamot," iii. 106). (Ibid.)
* Preparing for the High Holidays: If our actions, and then, God's judgment, are determined, then of what value is teshuvah - repentance, 'turning' toward God in hopes of self-improvement, community building, & changing our ways?
Pesikta Rabbati (Ish Shalom) Paragraph 44
'Return, O Israel' (Shuvah - Do teshuvah) Woe to the wicked who die without doing teshuvah, they lose their hope for a place in the world to come. Angels are sent to this person, and they record his deeds everyday, and all is foreseen before God, and everything is written and sealed, if he is righteous - they write of his righteousness, and if he is wicked they write of his wickedness. Therefore, when a tzaddik comes, the angels praise him, 'May he go to his resting place in peace.' If a wicked one dies without doing teshuvah, God says to him, 'Turn over your soul! Didn't I encourage you to do teshuvah? And you did not do it!...
Unetaneh Tokef #1
For You do not desire the death of the condemned, but that he turn from his path and live. Until the day of his death You wait for him. Should he turn, You will receive him at once. In truth You are their Creator and You understand their inclination, for they are but flesh and blood.
Unetaneh Tokef #2
"But repentance, prayer, and tzedakah mitigate the severity of the decree."
Torat Chayim - Baba Batra 51a:
"...Our Sages said, 'Repentance, prayer, and tzedakah mitigate the severity of the decree' - but they did not establish that [these] remove the decree, since the decree remains...rather they mitigate [or remove] the evil within the decree and turn it over from evil to good...so too with the hesped (eulogy) he saw in his dream...God turned it over and it came to be for the good as it says [in Psalm 30], 'God turned my mourning into dancing."
Abraham Joshua Heschel (20th c.)
A.J. *Heschel makes a distinction in external happenings, dividing them into what he calls "process," a regular pattern, and "event," an extraordinary, or unique thing. The essence of man's freedom is his ability to surpass himself. To a certain extent man is enslaved by his environment, society, and character, but man can think, will, and take decisions beyond these limitations. If men are treated as "processes" freedom is destroyed. Man is free at rare moments; freedom is an "event." Everyone has the potentiality for freedom, but only rarely achieves it. Free will, the ability to choose between two alternatives, is not the same as freedom, for though the latter includes choice, its achievement lies in the fact that one goes beyond oneself, and disregards the self as its own end. Thus man must choose, although he can choose even to ignore freedom – which would be to choose evil (see God in Search of Man (1955), 409–13; Man is not Alone (1951), 142, 146). - Jewish Virtual Library