By Maya Menashe, Science and Technology Editor
Free will is the capacity for a human being to choose. To choose his career, to choose whether to build a family, to choose how he spends the hours of his day. It sounds so simple, yet the concept manages to constantly be on my mind. As I choose to stroll down an unfamiliar street, to meet a new person, to sit down and wrestle with fascinating teachings in the Torah, I still find myself struggling with the very thing I am constantly exercising.
How free is free will, really?
Even though free will is what makes us innately unique from any other being God created, I have never fully understood it. Animals act on instinct, and angels are extensions of God’s will, dependent entities who carry out whatever tasks they are given. But although we feel like we actively choose how to live, how active are our choices if God already knows our every step before we take it? If He is the one Who places us in certain situations with complete knowledge of what we will pick, and if each one of us is born with tendencies that naturally pull us toward one option over another, then what does it mean to say that our will is free? Free will implies two possibilities we are equally likely to choose, but not every decision is like that; sometimes one option feels inevitable over the other.
For example, imagine a person is between telling a difficult truth or remaining silent. A close friend knows well enough to predict what the individual will do in this situation. Is his choice really free or is it just a predictable outcome based on who he is?
This metaphor is a simplification of a concept partly beyond human comprehension, yet it shows that the miracle of free will is not that the child can escape who he is, but that he can choose at all. He cannot change his circumstances or outcomes, but he can use the tools, knowledge and personality he already has to decide how he will move toward those outcomes. This brings me to a deeper understanding of the initial definition of free will.
Free will is the capacity for a human being to choose using the knowledge and tools he possesses in the present moment.
It is based on the limited knowledge he carries into each decision. From God’s infinite perspective, free will does not operate in the way it feels like it does to us. But from our perspective, which is the only perspective we can access, free will is the way we approach our given circumstances and how we decide to respond.
My grandfather, z”l, truly embodied this understanding of free will. He came to Israel from Iran as a young man with my grandmother and their child in 1952. There was quite literally nothing there for them, and they were among the pioneers who built Israel from the ground up with their bare hands. They chose to create a foundation for future generations. They chose to leave Iran during a time of stability and opportunity, not because of any dangers, but because they chose something greater than themselves. They chose to plant roots in a place (not so) foreign to them that was just beginning to take shape. They could have stayed in Iran to enjoy the current moment, but they chose to exercise their free will by choosing the more difficult option. Their decision was based not on comfort, but on values, their vision for future generations and a belief in something bigger than themselves. This is what free will is all about.
As we grow older and move through both simple and complicated stages of life, we turn potential into action. As we do this, we can limit or maximize the free will that God has given us. My grandfather chose to maximize it, to make an investment so that the values of his future generations would align with God’s will.
A person who constantly follows harmful impulses, who allows certain addictions or habits to hijack his behavior, becomes less free. He begins to act more like an instinctive being than a choosing one. Doing this risks not only changing his own values but also the direction of his legacy. It is up to God to decide how the accumulation of choices really unfolds, but we are responsible for the irreversible choices we bring into the world.
When I think about free will now, I understand it less as a moment of a decision and more as how I choose to spend the time I am given. Spend every moment of your life on increasing your free will and aligning it with the values God wants you to. My interpretation of free will is using time consciously to maximize potential. To smile at a stranger in that unfamiliar place you once walked through, to build a community with that stranger you smiled at long ago, to grow your intellect so that you can pass on your values for generations to come. Our mission in this world is to make an impact by choosing good.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Maya Menashe