"Hevruta" - following Lesson 7. The Freedom of Choice

Today we will go with the advice we received on Sunday, which is to try to read through the article together and go with Baal HaSulam and explore with him the concept of freedom.

If freedom exist, do we have it? Do we need to acquire it? Freedom from what exactly?

With these questions in mind, let's start reading.

The Freedom

“ '‘Harut [engraved] on the tablets’; do not pronounce it 'Harut, but rather 'Herut [freedom], to show that they were liberated from the angel of death.” (Shemot Rabbah 41)

These words need to be clarified, ...

Furthermore, once they have attained an eternal body that cannot die... how did they lose it again? Can the eternal become absent?

Freedom of Will

To understand the concept, “freedom from the angel of death,” we must first understand the concept of freedom as it is normally understood by all of humanity.

It is a general view that freedom is deemed a natural law, which applies to all of life. Thus, we see that animals that fall into captivity die when we rob them of their freedom. This is a true testimony that Providence does not accept the enslavement of any creature. It is with good reason that humanity has been struggling for the past several hundred years to obtain a certain measure of freedom of the individual.

Yet, this concept, expressed in that word, “freedom,” remains unclear, and if we delve into the meaning of that word, there will be almost nothing left, for before you seek the freedom of the individual, you must assume that any individual, in and of himself, has that quality called “freedom,” meaning that one can act according to one’s choice of one’s own free will.

Pleasure and Pain

However, when we examine the acts of an individual, we will find them compulsory. He is compelled to do them and has no freedom of choice. In a sense, he is like a stew cooking on a stove; it has no choice but to cook, since Providence has harnessed life with two chains: pleasure and pain.

The living creatures have no freedom of choice—to choose pain or reject pleasure. And man’s advantage over animals is that man can aim at a remote goal, meaning agree to a certain amount of current pain, out of choice of future benefit or pleasure to be attained after some time.

But in fact, there is no more than a seemingly transactional calculation here, where the future benefit or pleasure seems preferable and advantageous to the agony they are suffering from the pain they have agreed to assume presently. There is only a matter of deduction here—where they deduct the pain and suffering from the anticipated pleasure, and there remains some surplus.

Thus, only the pleasure is extended. And so it sometimes happens that we are tormented because the pleasure we received is not the surplus we had hoped for compared to the agony we suffered. Hence, we are in deficit, just as are merchants.

And when all is said and done, there is no difference here between man and animal. And if this is the case, there is no free choice whatsoever, but a pulling force drawing them toward any passing pleasure and rejecting them from painful circumstances. And Providence leads them to every place it chooses by means of these two forces without asking their opinion in the matter.

Moreover, even determining the type of pleasure and benefit are entirely out of one’s own free choice, but follows the will of others, as they want, and not he. For example: I sit, I dress, I speak, and I eat. I do all these not because I want to sit that way, or talk that way, or dress that way, or eat that way, but because others want me to sit, dress, talk, and eat that way. It all follows the desire and fancy of society, and not my own free will.

Furthermore, in most cases, I do all these against my will. For I would be more comfortable behaving simply, without any burden. But I am chained with iron shackles, in all my movements, to the fancies and manners of others, which make up the society.

So tell me, where is my freedom of will?

Workshop

Let's take a break from the reading to explore the question of Baal Sulam? Where is my freedom of will?

The Law of Causality

It is worthwhile taking some time to think about how we exist in the world with a “self,” where each of us regards himself as a unique entity, acting on its own, independent of external, alien, and unknown forces,

There is a general connection among all the elements of reality which follow the law of causality, of cause and effect, moving forward. And as the whole, so is each item for itself, meaning that each and every creature in the world from the four types—still, vegetative, animate, and speaking—abides by the law of causality by way of cause and effect.

Moreover, each particular form of a particular conduct, which a creature follows while in this world, is pushed by ancient causes, compelling it to accept that change in that conduct and not another whatsoever.

This is apparent to all who examine the ways of nature from a pure scientific point of view and without a mixture of bias. Indeed, we must analyze this matter to allow ourselves to examine it from all sides.

You will notice that the "The law of causaility" - like Baal HaSulam is calling it - very much reminds us of the definition of Kabbalah (This wisdom is no more and no less than a sequence of roots that hang down by way of cause and consequence, following fixed, determined laws that interweave into a single, exalted goal described as “the revelation of His Godliness to His creatures in this world.”)

So we are following a similar approach to understand which factors are involve in this law of causaility.

Basically which factors are influencing us.

We have 4 factors (we will learn later why we have only 4 - there is an actual reason for this - but for now let's only try to undertsand them)

Four Factors

Bear in mind that every emergence occurring in the beings of the world must be perceived not as extending existence from absence, but as existence from existence, through an actual entity that has shed its previous form and has robed its current one.

Therefore, we must understand that in every emergence in the world there are four factors where from the four of them together arises that emergence. They are called by the names:

The source.
The unchanging conduct of cause and effect related to the source’s own attribute.
Its internal conducts of cause and effect which change by contact with alien forces.
The conducts of cause and effect of alien things which affect it from the outside.

Factor #1 — “The Source”

The essence underlying the entire process of human development.
A unit of information that contains all the stages of a person’s future development.
Our human foundation is the genetic inheritance we receive from our parents, their parents, and all previous generations.

Factor #2 - Attributes of the Source — Utterly Unchanging

Each source is actually a collection of certain qualities intended to evolve from potential to actual.
Some of these qualities cannot be changed; their development plan is predetermined.

Factor #3 - “Its internal conducts of cause and effect which change by contact with alien forces”

Each source also contains qualities whose development is not predetermined and can change over time, depending on the influence of the environment.

Factor #4 - External Factors

Another factor that shapes each person’s stages of development is the influence of external forces on the source.

For example, the state of the global economy or various social trends and fashions may affect how the tendencies we inherited from our ancestors develop.

Only in the matter of the choice of environment is man’s reign over himself measured, and for this he should receive reward or punishment.

- Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

SLIDE #19

...We can always add in the matter of choosing our environment, which are the friends, books, teachers, and so on. It is like a person who inherited a few stalks of wheat from his father. From this small amount, he can grow many dozens of stalks through his choice of the environment for his source, which is fertile soil that contains all the necessary minerals and raw materials that nourish the wheat abundantly.

- Baal HaSulam, “The Freedom”

In conclusion we see that even if many things are influencing us, we can choose which influence we will apply on ourselves. We are in control of one factor but it is influencing everything else and this what can lead us the be free from our own nature.