📖 Daily Rambam (1) Hilchos Teshuvah – Chapter 5: Free Will (Friday 9th Nissan)

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Hilchos Teshuvah – Chapter 5: Free Will

Halachah 1 — Human Free Will

  • Every person is granted free will.
  • If one desires to be righteous, the choice is his; if he desires to be wicked, the choice is his.
  • No force compels a person toward good or evil. This is what distinguishes humanity from all other creations.

Halachah 2 — Rejection of Predestination

  • It is false to believe that God decrees at birth whether a person will be righteous or wicked.
  • Every individual may become righteous like Moshe or wicked like Yerovam.
  • All character traits—wisdom, foolishness, mercy, cruelty, generosity, or stinginess—are chosen by the individual alone.
  • A person is therefore fully responsible for his actions and their consequences.

Halachah 3 — Free Will as a Foundation of Torah

  • Free will is a fundamental pillar of the Torah and mitzvot.
  • God presents humanity with life and good, death and evil, blessing and curse, and leaves the choice in human hands.
  • Without free will, commandments, reward, and punishment would be meaningless.

Halachah 4 — Divine Knowledge and Human Responsibility

  • Although everything occurs according to God’s will, human beings act by their own choice.
  • Just as God established natural laws for creation, He established that humans possess free will.
  • Therefore, people are judged according to their deeds: rewarded for good and punished for evil.
  • Prophetic rebuke and moral accountability depend entirely on this principle.

Halachah 5 — God’s Foreknowledge and Free Will

  • Although God knows all that will occur, His knowledge does not negate human free will. God’s knowledge is not separate from Him, as human knowledge is from humans; rather, His essence and knowledge are one.
  • Human intellect cannot comprehend how divine foreknowledge and free will coexist.
  • Nevertheless, it is absolutely certain that a person’s actions are his own choice and that he is judged accordingly.
  • This principle underlies all prophecy, reward, punishment, and the call to Teshuvah.

About The Author

Rabbi Yaakov Goldstein is a 6th generation descendent of the famous Chief Rabbi of Izhmir, Rav Yehoshua Avraham Krispin, who authored a number of Sefarim, and was a colleague of Rav Chaim Falagi, and father in-law of the Pesach Hadvir. He currently lives with his wife Shayna, and twelve children K”H, in Tzfas, Israel. Rabbi Goldstein received Semicha from Rabbi Schneur Zalman Labkowski of the Tomchei Temimim headquarters in 2005 and served as a chaplain in the Lotar/Kalatz and K9 unit of the IDF from years 2005-2008. He is also a certified Shochet, and has performed Hashgacha work in slaughterhouses. Rabbi Goldstein is the director of Shulchanaruchharav.com, the world’s leading web-based Halacha database, and is the director of the Home Study Semicha Program, a self-study web-based Semicha program. He is a prolific author of over 50 Sefarim studied by a wide range of readers throughout the world, which is used regularly in Semicha programs around the globe. He is a world renowned Posek, answering questions to a web-based market, and serves as a local Posek, Rav, and Lecturer, in the Tzemach Tzedek community Shul in Tzefas, Israel. His many classes can be heard both from his website, Vimeo and YouTube channel. Students can join live to classes given in the Tzemach Tzedek Shul, through the “בית חבד צפת Chabad Tsfat” YouTube channel.