Freedom of Will

Does man have the freedom to act according to one’s own free will?

If we consider our actions, we will find they are compulsory, that we are forced to do them, and that we have no freedom of choice, since our actions are driven by either pleasure or pain. Thus, we haven’t the freedom to choose pain or to reject pleasure.

Man’s advantage over the beast is only that one can endure suffering for a remote, future goal. However, here, too, it is not a choice, but rather a calculation. It follows that Providence guides every person towards the goal, using pleasure or suffering, and without consulting us.

The social environment determines what people enjoy; every movement they make is subjugated to the fancies of society.

It follows that if there is no freedom of will, one is not one’s own master. And if we are not our own masters, that is, if we do not do what we want to do, but what society dictates, then there are no reward and punishment. [Read more →]

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There’s nothing more criminal in the modern world than the falsehood and irresponsibility permeating mass media. Anybody can write, anything can be written, and it also costs next to nothing, reaching and spoiling everyone. A person’s destiny completely depends on the environment (see Baal HaSulam’s article, “The Freedom“). Crimes, crises and suffering are all results of the involuntary absorption of incorrect and harmful information. Mass media feeds us this information and gets us hooked on it, changing the way we think and ruining us. Thus, by changing mass media, we’ll change the world!

Mass media needs to change to the degree we change. However, it needs to lead the way, as a group helping us reach a higher goal.

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A question I received: Why are people afraid to fall under the influence of a certain environment, such as a sect? One way or another, they’re influenced by their surroundings, and even though their surroundings are broad, they still aren’t free. Maybe it’s because the influence of a broad environment – the whole world – isn’t felt so much, creating an illusion of freedom?

I think that this is the main obstacle in disseminating Kabbalah, i.e. the demand for a person to create a proper environment for himself. People today don’t even want to start a family because they’re afraid of being dependent on their spouses and children. They feel a basic fear towards it. But maybe this will change as they experience more and more suffering?

My Answer: You’re right. Besides the society that Kabbalah urges one to create (whether a civilization or just a group of Kabbalists for now), all other societies (civilizations, religions, communities) are sects, because they impose their views on people and manipulate them. We know that that’s how the mass media and the government operate.

Take religious people as an example: Instead of providing their children with knowledge and the opportunity to choose their own path, religious people deliberately don’t educate them and impose upon them a special dress style, in order to keep them dependent on their environment.

Even though the environment rules over the person, he doesn’t feel subjugated because others encourage conformity to society, and this fulfills his ego. But today we see that egoism is outgrowing the social framework, because it’s getting ready to turn to the Creator. Therefore, people are acting against their environment (their families, clans, or religions). It takes time, but people will soon discover that a person isn’t free in any society or even within himself, and that freedom can only be found within a group that seeks to attain similarity with the Creator.

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A question I received in response to my post “A Call for Ideas – New Children’s Games“: How can one help a child mature if the child resists? I understand “Mosif daat mosif mahov” (“increase knowledge, increase pain”) but it’s still difficult to observe a normal boy, 13 years of age who wants to be like an 8 year old.

My Answer: You can impose a more grown-up environment upon him by involving him in his peers’ hobby groups, and keeping him out of the house.

A question I received in response to my post “Comments about Depression, Seeming Egoistic to Others, and Parenting“: How do I defend myself against evil people that hurt my feelings and constantly bother me? How can I deal with the stress that results from this?

My Answer: Find an environment that will allow you to feel secure and healed. Whatever you do, don’t isolate yourself. Find amusement, sports, a change of scenery, and be hard on yourself for being sensitive.

A question I received in response to my post “The Creator = Nature“: Why isn’t the Creator indifferent towards me? Is He more concerned about me than others? If this is true, then why?

My Answer: Put simply, the time has come to correct your individual soul in the general collective of souls, of the single soul of Adam.

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A question I received: I’m worried about the environmental problems facing our world, such as the degradation of the environment and people’s declining health. From Kabbalah’s perspective, how should we change the laws regulating the use and preservation of the environment? What should the national and international environmental laws be? What approach should be used to develop the appropriate framework and regulations?

My Answer: We could command nature to change, or we could command man to change. But in any case, man is a part of nature, and our commands will only cause us greater separation from nature, which will result in further harm to nature and to its integral parts – us. None of our attempts to reduce humanity’s harmful influence on nature will yield positive results. The fact is that nature’s actions are purposeful. Its influence on us has nothing to do with how we treat the still, vegetative and animate levels of nature. Nature reacts only to our attitude to one another. Man incorporates the whole of nature within himself, and it “falls” or “rises” together with him. Everything is measured according to the highest level, called “man.”

Nature affects us in order to force us to change, and what we have to change is our attitude to other people, not our attitude to nature. We need to change our egoistic attitude to others to an altruistic one, like a father feels for his children. We will then become an integral part of nature, and our attitude to all its other parts will change as well.

This cannot be done by coercive methods – since we have to change ourselves! If we realize this, we will reduce nature’s blows coming to us and to its other parts.

The other problem is that even if we realize that we need to change, we have no idea how to do it. And that is why we have been given the science of Kabbalah, which originated in the very beginning of our egoistic path, when we separated in Ancient Babylon. It’s a science that shows us how to unite into one whole. Sharing it and inculcating it into the consciousness of every person is precisely what constitutes the laws of the new civilization. We only need to understand that “preserving the environment” means protecting it from our egoism. Let’s work together.

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