Teshuvah 6

There are loads of verses in the Torah and in the words of the prophets that seem to be contradictory to this concept.

Some key words there near e is to appear, literally it's seen in the passive.

And soter, here as kesoterin, that seem like they are in opposition, is to contest or to oppose or to contradict.

So he's saying, listen, I know there's a lot of stuff that looks like it says the opposite.

And a lot of people, in fact, the majority of people are fooled by them.

To be fooled or to be tricked or to make an error.

And so it comes to their minds from this, from this mistaken interpretation of these verses, that the Holy Blessed One is the one who decrees upon a person whether they shall do good or bad, bad or good.

And that the mind of a person is not actually handed over to him.

Again, Masor, we talked about related to Masorti, the idea that something is passed over.

So, we believe, says Rambam, that lev shel adam Masor lo, that a person's mind is his own.

But he says there's some people who think that's not true.

Lahatoto l'chol asher, you'd say.

To incline him towards whatever God desires.

So, he says there's lots of people who think that we're puppets and that God's the puppet master.

Right? And some of those people are not necessarily malicious, they're just misreading the verses that seem to contradict the true understanding of free will.

But don't worry, Rambam's here to help.

But look, I'm going to explain a great and important concept, which from it, you're able to know the correct interpretation of all of those verses.

בזמן שאדם אחד או אנשי מדינה חותאים ועושה החותא חטא שעושה מדעתו ורצונו, כמו שהודענו, ראוי להיפרה ממנו, והקדוש ברוך הוא יודע איך ייפרה.

So he's kind of backing up a little bit here, not quite once upon a time, but giving us this framework that at a time when one person or the people of an entire state, Medina, make an error or sin, they do this sin, chotei chet, they do this bad action, and they do it from their own mind and with their own willpower.

And therefore, we all understand that it's correct to exact retribution from them because we understand that God knows what the right amount of retribution is.

So we don't have any problem with justice.

We all agree that people do bad things and that it is God who knows these things is able to punish them accordingly.

So no one's contesting that.

That's what he's going to build his argument upon.

So there are certain things, going back to where we were, there are some crimes for which justice, din, requires that retribution be exacted in this world.