JCC Day of Isbitz, Manahattan, Jan 21.

It was an interesting trip. Lets start with the second anual Mei HaShiloach conference, called, 'A Day of Isbitz,' which took place on Sunday, January 21st in at the JCC, Manhattan, amsterdam avenue on the upper west side. The three speakers were Rabbi Naftali Citron, Professor Shaul Maggid, and yours truly. The Mei HaShiloach has been described as subversive. This is due to its radical stance on the nature of law and determinism. Is everything from God? Does God grant free will for man to make his own choices, thereby meriting the ability to earn his own reward and deserve his own punnishment? At the very highest level, what we call, 'from God's point of view,' even the ability to fulfill or transgress one of the commandments of the Torah is bestowed by the Almighty. The question is, if I give a poor man a dollar, is God secretly controlling my action and causing me to give some charity, or did I do it out of my own volition?

The Gemara say, 'all is in the Hands of Heaven except for the fear of Heaven.' God determines all of the external circumstances of my life. WHether I am tall or short, smart or stupid, rich or poor, is all determined by God in His infinite wisdom. But the book of Deuteronomy tells us, 'what does God ask of you but to fear Him?' implying that he gives us a choice. He leaves it up to me whether or not I do a mitzvah or transgress the Law. He want us to choose, and says so quite plainy, 'I have placed before you good and evil, death and life ... Choose life!'

But this knowledge is just mans own understanding from his own point of view. If we can be as bold as Rav Mordechai Yosef (1800-1854, Poland), the author of the Mei Hashiloach (the Isbitzer), we can see clearly now that just because we are largely in the Dark, that does not mean that God is, too, and he would forbid keeping himself from knowing a thousand times over. 'Everything is in the hands of heaven, INCLUDING the fear of heaven (meaning, including free choice). God knows all, and sees all, and orchestrates all, and even micro-manages all, and does a wondrous job at it to boot. So If I lift my little finger, He knew about it from the beginning of time and makes it happen. If I deside to lift my index finger instead of my little finger, then He decided that as well. logic may seem to say that if God's will determines all actions, then man has no free choice, but this in not really the case. God is beyond time, and the past, present and future, so for all intensive purposes, whatever God decides, it is as if He has always decided it. If I chose to pet the dog, then God determined from the beginning of time that I was to pet the dog, and if I change my mind and choose to chase the cat, the that action, that point in time, turns out exactly as God planned it.

To be continued ... I have been writing this from Joe Berkes computer in London, and I have to get back to Jerusalem. Thanks, Joe, you da best. WOOF!