We Can Choose - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks zt"l

[Music] the Chevy singer said it best we have to have freedom we have no choice and of course he was right because Judaism is predicated on freedom the truth is that in the ancient world the polytheistic world all the gods who are part of Nature and therefore they were subject to the laws of nature Along Comes Judaism and for the first time discovers a Transcendent God who stands outside the universe who is free to create or not to create and when he makes Humanity in our image he bestows on us that gift of Freedom it costs God a great deal to give us freedom because if we didn't have it we could never rebel against him we could never sin we could never threaten the future of the world he created but so precious is freedom that God gave it to us how do we know that we have freedom and the answer lies in a single concept called chuva in Judaism repentance and here it is you find yourself in a certain situation and for some reason Temptation weakness fear who knows what you do something wrong comes Yom Kippur you feel bad about it you do chuva you say forgive me God I recognize I made a mistake then some later time in your life you find yourself in exactly the same situation and this time you don't make that mistake that proves that you have changed that proves that it was not a combination of environment and genetics that determined your action your action was determined by your choice the first time you chose one way the second time you chose another way that means we are free many people have tried to deny freedom because it's a scary thing some people held that Our Fate was in the Stars Mark said Our Fate is in the economic system Freud said Our Fate is in the hands of Primal repressed unconscious drives Darwin said it's all in genetics none of that explains the fact that actually we can change our way of life whatever our economic status whatever our unconscious drives whatever our genetically coded instincts the truth is we are free but Chevy singer was right we have no choice but to be free