Free Will – Our Battle Front

By Rabbi Moshe Krieger, Yeshivas Bircas HaTorah

This week’s parsha discusses numerous korbanos. Among them is the korban Todah, the thanksgiving offering brought by people who survive cases of exceptional danger. The command to bring the korban Todah contains a peculiar phrase: “lirtzonchem tizb’chuhu” (22:29).This is usually taken to mean “you should bring it willingly”, but literally it means: “you should offer it for your ratzon (will).”

The Oneg Yom Tov asks (in the hakdama), don’t all korbanos have to be brought willingly? Why does the Torah specify ratzon only for the korban Todah?

First, we should clarify: Why does one who survives a situation of great danger have to bring a korban in thanks for this? Is he praising Hashem for the fact that he is still able to enjoy the material pleasures of this world? Is his praise based on the fact that he is now reunited with his family? While the offerer of the korban Todah should surely give thanks for the above, the literal reading of the verse teaches that the pinnacle of one’s thanks should be the fact that he has ratzon; he has his own free will. This is Hashem’s greatest gift—bechira (the ability to choose).

The Oneg Yom Tov sees Dovid Hamelech’s words (which we say in Hallel — 116:16) as praise of this gift of ratzon. “I am your servant, son of your maidservant; You have opened up my restraints. I will therefore bring to you a Todah offering and call out in the name of Hashem.”

Dovid was declaring: Hashem, I am your servant. You gave me all that I have; I owe you everything. And should I claim that my parents gave me what I have — no, I am the son of your maidservant — my entire family, throughout the generations, have been your servants; all that we have comes from You. I should have no choice but to do only Your will, but instead, You have opened my restraints — You have given me bechira, the ability to choose to do good or evil in order that I get reward. This is a great gift, and I want to use it right away to call out Your name in praise.

Using our ratzon to choose good is something only human beings can do. Animals operate entirely on instinct, and even an angel has no alternatives. The Torah describes man as “k’dmuseinu” — similar to Hashem in that he can act with free will. Only, while Hashem always decides to do what is good (and eternally good), man can choose to do either good or evil, and be rewarded or punished in kind. By using his free will for good, man brings out his unique essence. (See Seforno Bereishis 1:26.)

The Ramchal (Maamar Ha’Ikarim) adds that the gift of bechira enables man to achieve his main purpose in life. When a person finds himself up against a choice of good or bad, choosing good means clinging to Hashem. This is our tachlis.

One could ask, though: Why is choosing good necessary to cling to Hashem? Isn’t it enough just to do good? Shouldn’t a person’s good deeds gain him deveikus whether he chose to do them or not?

The Ramchal explains (Derech Hashem I 3:1-2) that to reach deveikus to Hashem, the act of good must be one’s own choice. Without actively using our bechira, the good acts we do are not truly ours. There must be two paths before you, and you must want with all your ratzon to cling to the good path. This is true deveikus.

When it comes to bechira, Rav Eliyahu Dessler notes that many of us have a serious misunderstanding. We think that the choice to go in the ways of the Torah is something we made long ago. The test of bechira is a thing of the past and nothing more is expected of us. Rav Dessler disproves this outlook with an analogy: Two armies face off at a battlefield, each trying to conquer enemy territory. Wherever the fighting is at a given moment, that is where the battlefront is located. Where the front was yesterday is irrelevant today. So too in our lives, we may have succeeded in bechira yesterday, but today has new challenges and they are our test of bechira right now. However we fare in the tests of today will determine our tests in bechira tomorrow.

For example, if a person grew up with a Torah education, it should not be a challenge for him to wake up each morning early enough to put on tallis and tefillin and daven Shacharis with a minyan. When he does so, he is not succeeding in any test of free will. While he will be rewarded for the mitzvos he does, his actual level of bechira is defined by a higher level of tests: Will he focus his mind on the words of tefilla and nothing else? Will he shteig in his learning seder, or will it be riddled with coffee breaks, phone calls and the like? The challenge we face today is called our nekudas habechira, the point at which choosing good is difficult for us. And whatever successes we achieve today will set us up for still higher levels of challenge at tomorrow’s newly adjusted nekudas habechira.

Harav Gamliel Rabinowitz was once approached by a middle-aged man who was very sad. He explained that he had been struggling for years with his yetzer hara.

“Some days I think I’m finally gaining control, but so I often I slip back and lose most of the progress I’ve made,” he cried.

“It must be very hard for you,” Rav Gamliel said. “Keep at it, don’t give up, and keep in mind that everyone has his nisayon in life — it is for this that we’re here. This is your nekudas habechira; this is why you are alive.”

May we be zocheh to grow in our level of bechira!