What Does Hashem Arrange and What is up to our Free Will? By Rabbi Yitzchak Feigenbaum

all right Shalom everybody once again this year should be and all the should be as a for all the people that need and all the people that need to get home safely wherever wherever they are K should uh should send Yeshua to to to to everyone and and and anyone okay um pardon me today we're dealing with one very specific topic which we mentioned uh last week and we're going to do it top to bottom it's really not as all complicated as one would think let's do it straightforward it started because uh we were doing and we will continue to do as part of our uh you know since everyone saids you should and I figured what better instead of some you know like cheesy stories while just actually understand the Dominic would have thought right okay and we were on the of are the source of everything and we thank you that you're Mak you arrange you order the steps of human beings and we pointed out say this means two things one is you as we write in the in the sitter right you you Hashem sets the path he he sets your steps he's the one that arranges you know where you going to be in the right place at the right time you're going to be in the store write that in there you're going to end up in that City you're born here you end up going there your car stalls you go to the other place you Mr wedding you he sets up your steps in your path and when you make your choice of what to do he gives you the ability to do it to uh well let's on the positive side he certainly gives you the ability to do the right thing and you get dig your own grave he gives you the ability to do make the wrong choice the sh is we need to clarify so exactly what steps does a k arrange and what is our free will that's what we're dealing with okay and the truth is it's it's pretty straightforward the ROM is very clear if you learn Shon Pro R which is a terrific little little safer it's his introduction of peros which is telling in and of itself like of all things peras is pretty straightforward and uh the RMA himself even says like why would I write an introduction to perov like per pretty like straightforward and and he writes an eight chapter introduction introduction to to his Parish on per of us and he says because people are not are complicated right and therefore the topic of peros is is people and people are not so pent and in the context of all that he explains this issue because he speaks about free will this is a whole rum about Free Will and what are you're born with and and and and and and and and um uh you know the concept of were're Judge subjectively Etc and then he makes his basic concept he says listen it's pretty straightforward the tells us everything is in the hands of Heaven except for the fear of Heaven in very simple terms this is what it means kabaru arranges our reality I'm gonna I'm gonna say that a little better I let let's let's erase that for a second um could arrange our reality right sometimes we can arrange our own reality if it really makes no difference because doesn't really care if we drive north on Street a or north on Street B if it makes no difference to anything that he has to get done then he let should choose a or b really makes zero difference right if he needs you on Street a he's gonna make sure you're on Street a why does he want you on Street a he wants you on stre day there's a guy there that's going to need a ride and uh he wants to see if you're gonna pick him up or not um there's gonna be a big there's a gonna be a traffic exam theb wants you to be late for whatever reason he wants you to be late maybe because you know where you're going you learn a message saying I didn't think I was supposed to go there or hey moner frustra or whatever it is right um but kbu certainly will intervene in your free will choices when it comes to anything which is not connected to youri any decision which does not affect any moral right or wrong you do not necessarily have free will to do it because B will stick kids know in as it were and he'll arrange it he'll arrange where you're born he'll arrange where you're going to go he'll arrange when your carwheel won't break down he'll arrange the people who'll bump into you he'll offer you this job or that job he'll arrange you have a million dollars he'll ARR $10 he arranges your reality such that he arranges the choices you face will arrange whether you're going to choose to give $0 or $20 this month at Saka and that's your choice or whether your choice is whether to give one million or two million right I don't have the choice whether to give should I give one million to sck should get one and a half out of that million should I split it between Isa and the hospital should I get it all to a hospital I don't face any of those choices for some reason certainly unknown to me because I thought I'd be really good at these choices but because clearly doesn't trust me with that right he doesn't give me those choices I have a choice where they give you know $100 for sure $200 right you know right so I I have those choices but I don't have choices you know to uh I I don't face the struggle with you know when when I was in high school I did not face the struggle whether you know maybe I should look for a career being a star uh basketball player that that that was never an option could buru uh uh gave me funny enough nor did he uh set up any choices that maybe I would decide to be a honest or crooked accountant I I barely passed math math in n9th grade and I didn't take math again right that was the beauty of growing up in the 60s if you could breathe like you graduated high school right and so I K bero didn't I I don't I don't face any tests on being a cook he did give me The Gift of Gab and therefore I could have just as easily you know sold bridges that don't exist I I could do that really well um uh I I once did a c program for like like maybe people who are like probably their first Friday night ever right and and a program in Toronto and I did my thing and a guy came up to me and gives me his card Rabbi you're in the wrong business I can get you in comedy club we can get you on TV you can make a lot of money they were like you know for a millisecond that was the choice so I was given that choice but I was never given the choice of hey uh you know you want to invest your million dollars in something get I don't got no money to invest Happ so K buru gives you your choices you know you could be born in in Warsaw in the 1930s you could have been born in the Golden Age of Spain in in a castle to a very wealthy uh uh from family uh you could have been born in Spain during the Inquisition and you light shoers candles in a in a dungeon in a basement um you know you could be we're given realities and we don't necessarily we don't necessarily have total free will to make the choices of what our reality would be again if it makes zero difference right then you can go with the way you could be an accountant you could be a tax lawyer uh you have those that that skill set and if a needs you to be a tax lawyer he's going to make sure that you're a tax lawyer because he has something coming up in the future where a struggle that he needs you to deal with right so he needs you to be a tax lawyer and and what's going to come up hopefully you will make the right decision but if for Coach bur's plans for you an accountant a tax lawyer you know s it's not going to make whatever B's plann for you could go with way so let you make your own choice just like he could could let you make your own own choice taking Road a or Road B if it doesn't really make a difference but whether you will speed on road a or Road B that's a moral decision you make where you give the person a ride and you're at the light and you see the guy looking for a ride and say oh my gosh if I have to spend 20 minutes in the car with this guy I'm going to shoot myself but it's raining outside and he needs a ride and nobody likes giving him rides because he is a dramatic nck but there he is that's my ber had to go like why did I take this street I I never take this like like I don't know what I was thinking B wanted you and there he is and you now have a good a a a sh decision give the guy a ride he'll get a headache but it'll be a big M or you know Harden your heart and just pretend you didn't notice him right so again the way I always phrased it in high school it's the moral decisions you are see you're not not your job you're you're you're not because KB could arrange that for you right you're not your house k b a big house small house right there Gob decisions the only thing you really control are the moral decisions right the line of school used to be you are the moral decisions that you make this but you are right you're not your house that's B decided what kind of house you're G to have he gave you the money and then know that that doesn't reflect who and what you really are right that that's K Burke's doing that's not a moral decision but any moral decision that you make that's totally and complete years will not intervene he's he arranges the options you will face what city you're going to be in people you're going to bump into what natural talents you will or will not have the era you will be born in stuff that's going to happen right K bur will range that you know we should end up in Toronto total dramatic wacko over h we were supposed to be staying in air we were doing fine right clearly arranged I could have gone to Toronto and sold stock called it Toronto and I right so he he arranges your real realities right or lets you arrange realities if they have no moral implications but once there's a moral implication to a decision you faced because Burker totally steps back and that is your choice will he stop you no he gives you the ability you have a hand you can you he may God forbid you may come to a point where you're you're doing so manyar reach such a point of so many bad wrong things that K took away his free will he was a dead man walking K might as well just have killed him because he was he was dead right and and we're not going to get into you know right so K does you know you're doing making bad choices with your money hasem may decide I'm very sorry we have to take your money away right that's not the only with you might lose your job that was maybe that was your original place on this earth when you were born I com Brooklyn said in motion that at age 37 you're going to be the guy that goes broke and the community will have the struggle of will they help you or not this fits exactly into n saak somebody just asked how does it fit into n our decisions making is is is what is pre-made by by certain no that exact exactly what rler says if you learn rler exactly says that he said there's a which is set by the good Lord and that's that's that's how they govern he has you born into a from family and you have a from education therefore you have a certain knowledge base and certain things are are expected from you he has you born in noville Idaho you find out your Jewish when you're 27 he has different things that he expects from you right he has you born extremely brilliant he has you born learning disabled um he has you born uh you know whatever right stuff so he God does that track God sets your reality and he sets your tests right so some guys test is will you finish shots three or four or five times and another person tested you only found out was j47 will you go to a Discovery program now that you know you're Jewish and will you actually make the big step and actually cash your kitchen which is going to cost you a fortune and that's dramatic and colot good for you all right but the good or bad choice is totally and we must add to that we must add to that we must add to that that the concept the famous Raman we're going to look at it inside the paraphrase of it is though God will never give you a test who can't handle he sets up your reality M go he sets up your reality he sets up the choices you're going to face you're G to face a choice of $10 to $20 to Saka you're going to face the choice of a 2 million or three million to Saka you're going to face a choice of being the healthy person who visits people in the hospital you're going to face a choice of being the hospital patient who Smiles or the hospital patient who's cranky right K who creates our choice but you have free will if you're that hospital patient you have free will you could you can't decide to be healthy necessarily I mean you make your Shad you do what you got to do but if you're supposed to be sick for two months you're GNA be sick for too much you choose to smile at the people that visit or be cranky you choose to make a kid hasem with nurses or with the nurses you choose to say please and thank you or you choose to be grouchy the people who are healthy they choose to come visit or they choose to be too busy right everybody is there coach Brook arranges it but when it comes to a when it comes to a moral decision that's totally yours but Hashem does not give you a choice that you cannot handle and that is the famous ramban on a we're going to see it uh quickly because it's it's hugely important let me me just find it on myself and get it up on my screen um here we are let me just share the screen the famous ran says ran like this God tested and he said take your son your only Sonia bring him up as an phrased it in a way that sounded like he meant AB should sh this son as a corbon far had been really carefully what God said he didn't precisely say that and of course the young God said you know no don't you you you misinterpreted but put in a way that he would to say what would he do if if he would assuming that's what he thought Hashem meant so of course everybody says what do you mean hasem tested Hashem knows what people are going to do I test kids in high school because I don't know if they understood if I give them a test I don't know if they understood or not give them a test and see how they do says test and it's not just a your kid test it's the test of your double Park and there's a little old lady checking out in front of you and she's counting her change out in in in in in nickels and dieses talking to the checkout girl about her grandson for Rashid and you're going to get a ticket and you can't afford to do that so Hashem just set you up with a test and he arranged that you should be in the Super Market and he arranged it would take you extra two seconds to find what you needed so by the time you got to the checkout person that was that person in front of you to test your patient's musles whether that's the test or some God forbid sickness test or you win the lot you know have 20 m dollar test whatever it is born in Idaho only found out your Jewish at 20 test born to rash and that there's great expectations of you Tas born toing the Holocaust born in the five towns to a wealthy family Tas born with brains born with artistic talent whatever it is to me says raan the actions of humans when it comes to good bad decision r though you total Free Will is complete absolute rute in your hand say you want you can do the right thing La said you don't want to do the right thing said don't do the right thing totally up to you so therefore this test of being patient with a person in front of you in line of parting with your money of giving a guy a ride right of finding extra time to do to learn to do is called a test from the Viewpoint of the one being tested God the tester he doesn't need to he know what's in your heart he only commands this to you sets up this reality to take it from potential to action so you should get reward for the good deed losar La toad not just reward for the good heart if I had to I would well then now God sets you up the reality so now do it and you get reward for having done it but he would never do that to someone who he knows doesn't have the ability to do it because then he sets them up for failure God doesn't want to put you in a position where you get punished because he knows you'll do the wrong thing got only test the the the the sadik meaning he knows that the will do meaning could do it God wants to make him righteous by giving him the opportunity to do a good deed it's so he commands he creates a test he doesn't bother the test we are not GNA listen anyways because that he wouldn't do God's not out to trip you up to make to give you that's not trying to help you or gam he's not going to give you something that he knows you can't pass he'll give you a test he knows you could you have free will everybody every had free will everybody has free will you could fail but you could pass because if you couldn't pass then why is God doing this you just you could rack up gam no God doesn't do that he doesn't do he wants you give opportunities to rack up gun aen that by the way in a Malu which a lot of communities say now all the time because of the mat we say um um we say [Music] um or remember us for for merit or write Us in the book of Merit ask anybody what do you mean merits are merits if you have good deeds you have merits and if you don't have good deeds you don't have merits so what do you mean remain us for merits or write Us in the book of skuot either you have skot or you don't have skuot people say no what it means is write Us in the book of people who are given easy opportunities to Rack upyo God could give you multiple tests which are easy the guy in front of you and his hands are full and you can open the door that's an easy one it's not like he's asking you to lend you a thousand bucks which is a harder one right God could create realities for you where you could easily pick up M vote right in some of the realities were it's hard it's a real difficult call but he he could make situations where you could just quickly pick up a lot of Easy A lot of good decisions that are easy as pie that's what it means remembers y give us opportunities to pick up SC where we have easy tests ones that'll be easy to pass multiple opportunities just to do easy good deeds and we just keep on picking up mitus rather than for some people MIT don't come their way right that's just that giv may have to search out and look for it for whatever Brook would set it up for so very simply put you are the moral decisions that they make moral decisions any decision which has a good bad connotation that is completely totally you for which you bear responsibility God will allow you to do either one your call and he he let you do what you're G to do any decision which is that carries no good bad weight whatsoever Road a road B um then K might just set it up because he needs you somewhere or if at the moment doesn't make it difference he'll allow you to set it up but certainly K bur will intervene and set it up because he does arrange your reality within which you will then use your free will to choose hope that makes some sense everybody again everybody should have the the should should should be faced with easy decision remember we don't ask Hashem to test us we're we're fine thank you very much right knows when and what we need to do and we believe honestly that again hasem never gives us a struggle that we cannot handle we have the ability in any situation hasem throws our way uh to make the correct decision and he'll give us the ability to do that have a beautiful and wonderful day and Rich everybody Shu and and once again thank you to the U for allowing me and allowing us to have this opportunity to spend time learning together Yash everybody