בחירה חופשית

And Joseph was brought down into Egypt (Gen. 39:1). May it please our master to teach us whether one may recite the Havdalah prayer at the expiration of the Sabbath with a light used by an idolater? Thus did our masters teach us: It is forbidden to recite the Havdalah prayer with a light used by an idolater. Why? Because it (the light) does not rest from its work.⁶It remains a light used for idolatry. B. Berakhot 53b. Furthermore, if you did recite the Havdalah prayer with a light used by an idolater, you would be treating the idolater as though he deserved to be highly regarded, and Scripture states: All the nations are as nothing before Him (Isa. 40:17). It is related that when Antoninus came to Caesarea he summoned our saintly Rabbi. His son, R. Simeon, and the illustrious R. Hiyya accompanied him. R. Simeon noticed the handsome, distinguished-looking legionary, whose head reached the capitals of the columns, and he said to R. Hiyya: “See how fat the calves of Esau are.” Whereupon R. Hiyya took him to the marketplace and pointed out baskets of grapes and figs covered with flies, and said to him: “These flies and these legionaries are one and the same.” When R. Simeon returned to his father he told him: “This is what I said to R. Hiyya, and this is how he answered me.” “R. Hiyya,” he replied, “was only substantially correct in comparing the legionaries to the flies, for the legionaries are considered as nothing (before God), while the Holy One, blessed be He, used flies as His emissaries,” as it is said: And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uppermost parts of the river of Egypt (Isa. 7:18), and also: And I will send the hornet before thee (Exod. 23;28). Proof of this is that at the time when the Holy One, blessed be He, desired to fulfill the decree: Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger (Gen. 15:13), He selected as his emissary one from the smallest tribe. And so Joseph was sold into Egypt, and later Jacob and his sons went there to fulfill the decree. Therefore it is written: And Joseph was brought down into Egypt (Gen. 39:1). And Joseph was brought down into Egypt. Scripture states elsewhere: How great are Thy works, O Lord! Thy thoughts are very deep (Ps. 92:6). R. Simeon the son of Yohai said: There are certain creatures that thrive in water but cannot thrive on land, while other creatures thrive on land but cannot thrive in water. If those creatures that dwell in the sea ascend onto dry land, they cannot survive, and if those that live on dry land descend into the sea, they cannot survive. Nevertheless Jonah descended into the sea and lived, as it is said: So they took up Jonah and cast him into the sea (Jonah 1:15). And the fish that swallowed him ascended to dry land and survived, as is said: And God spoke to the fish, and he threw up Jonah onto dry land (ibid. 2:11). Thus we learn that a place which results in death to one may give life to another, and a place which gives life to one may result in death to another. Hence Scripture states: How great are Thy words, O Lord! (Ps. 92:6). There are creatures that thrive in the air but do not thrive in fire, and conversely there are creatures that thrive in fire but do not thrive in the air. If one that lives in the air enters a fire, he cannot survive, and if one that lives in fire ascends into the air, he cannot survive. Yet Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were hurled into the fire and went forth unscathed, as it is said: Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego came forth (Dan. 3:26). The creature that thrives in fire but does not thrive in the air is the salamander. How do we know this? When glass blowers are about to fashion glass objects, they stoke their furnace for seven days and seven nights. When the fire becomes extremely hot, a creature similar to a lizard that is called a salamander comes out. If a man should smear his hand or any part of his body with its blood, fire will not affect that place, for the animal is created in fire. From this fact our sages taught that the fire of Gehenna does not affect the scholar, (deriving this) a fortiori from a salamander. For if the blood of a salamander, which is merely created in fire, can make a man’s body immune to fire, how much more so would the scholar, who observes the law, which is a fiery law, given by One who is a consuming fire, and of whose teacher (is said): The house of Jacob shall be a fire (Obad. 18), be immune from the fire of Gehenna. Hence it is said: How great are Thy works, O Lord! Thy thoughts are very deep (Ps. 92:6). What is meant by Thy thoughts are very deep? R. Yohanan said: This alludes to the deep thoughts You shared with Abraham (at the covenant) between the pieces (of the covenanat offering) when You said to him: Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger (Gen. 15:13). However, R. Judah the son of Shalum said: Deep thoughts indicates that though they were to become strangers and an alien people, dwellers in a land not their own, where they would be kept in bondage for four hundred years, and would be forced to descend from the prisoner’s block with bands about their neck, He did not do that. He contrived a way for them to descend in dignity. He accomplished this through subterfuge. He made Jacob love Joseph so much that his brothers hated him. As a consequence they sold him to the Ishmaelites, who brought him to Egypt. Then Jacob and his sons descended because of him, as it is said: And Joseph was brought down into Egypt.

Every man was endowed with a free will; if he desires to bend himself toward the good path and to be just it is within the power of his hand to reach out for it, and if he desires to bend himself to a bad path and to be wicked it is within the power of his hand to reach out for it. This is known from what it is written in the Torah, saying: "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil" (Gen. 3.22), that is as if saying: "Behold, this species, man, stands alone in the world, and there is no other kind like him, as regards this subject of being able of his own accord, by his reason and thought, to know the good and the evil, and to do whatever his inclination dictates him with none to stay his hand from either doing good or evil; and, being that he is so, 'Lest he put forth his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever'" (Ibid.)¹Abodah Zarah, 16b; Megillah, 25a. G. Permit not your thought to dwell upon that which ridiculous fools of other peoples and a majority of asinine individuals among the children of Israel say, that the Holy One, blessed is He! decrees at the very embryonic state of every man whether he should be just or wicked. The matter is not so. Every man is capable of being as just as Moses our Master or as wicked as Jeroboam, wise or incony, merciful or human, miser or philanthropist, and so in all other tendencies. There is none to either force things upon him or to decree things against him; either to pull him one way or draw him another way, but he alone, of his own free will, with the consent of his mind, bends to any path he may desire to follow. It is concerning this that Jeremiah said: "Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not the evil and the good" (Lam. 3. 38),²I am amazed that the English version of the American Jewish Publication Society, too, makes this sentence interrogatory. G. which is as if saying, the Creator decrees not that man should be either good or bad. Now, this being so, the consequence hereof is that the sinner alone brought harm upon himself. It is, therefore, meet that he should lament and shed tears because he sinned, and because of what he did to his soul and rewarded it with evil. Even this is the meaning of the succeeding Verse: "Wherefore doth a living man complain, or a strong man? Because of his sins" (Ibid.)³The English version in all existing translations is entirely opposed to what was an accepted doctorine by all medieval and modern Hebrew scholars. I corrected it to harmonize the texts. G. Again, he continues, in the succeeding Verse seeing that it all is in our power, and we did all the evil of our own free will and accord, it is, indeed meet for us to turn in repentance and abandon our wickedness, for our free will is in our hands now as well as at the time we committed the sins saying: "Let us search and try our ways, and return to the Lord" (Ibid.–40).⁴See Niddah, 16b; but the Maimoni doctorine does not contradict that text; you can not teach a brainless idiot wisdom, but a man with brains is often a charlatan; the choice is his. C. G. And, this matter is a great and component part, the very pillar of the Torah and its precepts, even as it is said: "See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil" (Deut. 30.15), and it is, moreover, written: "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and curse" (Ibid. 11.26). This is as if saying, the power is in your hand, and whatever human activity man may be inclined to carry on he has a free will to elect either good or evil. And, because of this very subject it is said: "Oh, who would grant that they had such a heart as this, to fear Me, and to keep all my commandments at all times" (Ibid. 5.26). This is as if saying, that the Creator forces not the sons of man, and makes no decrees against them that they should do good or evil, but that it all is in their own keeping.⁵Since Maimoni no authority in Israel disputed this. G.

Every man was endowed with a free will; if he desires to bend himself toward the good path and to be just it is within the power of his hand to reach out for it, and if he desires to bend himself to a bad path and to be wicked it is within the power of his hand to reach out for it. This is known from what it is written in the Torah, saying: "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil" (Gen. 3.22), that is as if saying: "Behold, this species, man, stands alone in the world, and there is no other kind like him, as regards this subject of being able of his own accord, by his reason and thought, to know the good and the evil, and to do whatever his inclination dictates him with none to stay his hand from either doing good or evil; and, being that he is so, 'Lest he put forth his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever'" (Ibid.)¹Abodah Zarah, 16b; Megillah, 25a. G. Permit not your thought to dwell upon that which ridiculous fools of other peoples and a majority of asinine individuals among the children of Israel say, that the Holy One, blessed is He! decrees at the very embryonic state of every man whether he should be just or wicked. The matter is not so. Every man is capable of being as just as Moses our Master or as wicked as Jeroboam, wise or incony, merciful or human, miser or philanthropist, and so in all other tendencies. There is none to either force things upon him or to decree things against him; either to pull him one way or draw him another way, but he alone, of his own free will, with the consent of his mind, bends to any path he may desire to follow. It is concerning this that Jeremiah said: "Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not the evil and the good" (Lam. 3. 38),²I am amazed that the English version of the American Jewish Publication Society, too, makes this sentence interrogatory. G. which is as if saying, the Creator decrees not that man should be either good or bad. Now, this being so, the consequence hereof is that the sinner alone brought harm upon himself. It is, therefore, meet that he should lament and shed tears because he sinned, and because of what he did to his soul and rewarded it with evil. Even this is the meaning of the succeeding Verse: "Wherefore doth a living man complain, or a strong man? Because of his sins" (Ibid.)³The English version in all existing translations is entirely opposed to what was an accepted doctorine by all medieval and modern Hebrew scholars. I corrected it to harmonize the texts. G. Again, he continues, in the succeeding Verse seeing that it all is in our power, and we did all the evil of our own free will and accord, it is, indeed meet for us to turn in repentance and abandon our wickedness, for our free will is in our hands now as well as at the time we committed the sins saying: "Let us search and try our ways, and return to the Lord" (Ibid.–40).⁴See Niddah, 16b; but the Maimoni doctorine does not contradict that text; you can not teach a brainless idiot wisdom, but a man with brains is often a charlatan; the choice is his. C. G.