Ba'al Bechira: Can someone override the wishes of Hashem?

In Parshas Vayeshev, when Reuven saves Yosef from his brothers who wanted to kill him by lowering him into the pit; the Ohr HaChaim Hakodosh asks what kind of salvation was the pit – it was full of deadly snakes and scorpions, so lowering Yosef into there meant certain death anyway.
He answers that snakes and scorpions only kill someone when Hashem tells them to, so if Yosef is lowered into the pit he will only die if it is G-d’s will, and since Yosef was a total Tzadik, Reuven knew that is would live. But if would be left to the mercies of his brothers, he could be killed even against G-d’s will, since humans are baalei bechirah and they can kill even against the will of G-d. This seems to be at odds with the Sefer HaChinuch which says there is no reason for a person to want revenge against anyone, since whatever the other person did to you was anyway decreed by G-d.
A lot of people think that the Ohr HaChaim argues with the Sefer HaChinuch. But it doesn’t have to be so.
First, the Chofetz Chaim (al HaTorah Mishpatim) proves from the Gemora that even if someone hurts you, it is still Min HaShamayim.
The Gemora is talking about the fact that the Torah gives a doctor permission to heal. “Verapoh yerapeh” the posuk says. Explains the Gemora; You might have thought that since G-d decreed a person be ill, it would be forbidden to heal him since you are contradicting Hashem’s decree.
But, the Chofetz Chaim points out, the posuk of verapoh yerapeh is referring in context to a person who is injured by being hit by another person.
You therefore see, says the Chofetz Chaim, that even when one person hits another person it is a divine decree.
The Chovos HaLevovos also mentions that when one person harms another it can only be by divine decree.
Rav Chaim Volozhen (Ruach Chaim) also explains along these lines the Mishna in Pirkei Avos, “He saw a skull floating on the water. He said to it: Because you killed someone were you killed – and the person who killed you will be killed nonetheless”.
On the other hand, the Ohr HaChaim who says that a person can harm another even against the will of Hashem and that’s why Reuven was helping Yosef by lowering him into the pit, is really a Zohar, on the spot. The Ohr HaChaim does not quote it, but it’s there.
The Metzudas Dovid in Daniel (3:26) similarly asks why Channia, Mishael, and Azaryah didn’t simply jump out of the fiery furnace when they had a chance. Even though they would have had to fight Nevuchadnetzar, still, by staying the fire they were as good as dead anyway so why not chance jumping out and fighting? He says that the fire is not a Baal bechirah and only burns when Hashem decrees. Nevuchadnetzar, on the other hand, is a Baal bechirah and could kill them even against Hashem’s wishes. The same idea as the Zohar and the Ohr HaChaim.
There are numerous other sources with this idea as well, particularly in the Chassidishe Seforim.
There doesn’t have to be any disagreement. For sure, Hashem can, and sometimes does protect people even from Baalei Bechirah, like when Moshe Rabbeinu’s neck turned to stone. Or on Chanukah, Rabim b’Yad m’atim.
So here’s the question: If Hashem decides to protect Yosef from his brothers, Yosef will be protected; if He decides to let the brothers kill him, he will die. So why's that different than the snakes and scorpions?
The answer is that Hashem’s decision to protect or not protect people is not random, but follows certain rules. Hashem takes into consideration the person’s merits, zechus avos, other zechusim, and various different factors then decides what to do.
At times, there are circumstances that upset the balance. Like for instance a Makom Sakanah, where Hashem will not afford a person his otherwise warranted level of protection.
Or the Halachah that prohibits us to walk on a bridge together with a Rasha. If Hashem decides to punish the Rasha, by collapsing the bridge, we will c”v be in danger.
But let’s try to understand this. If Hashem wants an innocent person to live he will live; if he wants him to die he will die, so why should the fate of the Rasha accidentally affect the life of the Tzadik because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time?
The answer is of course Hashem can save him, but just like there is such a thing as a natural Makom Sakanah where there is a specially strict system of life and death, so too there are situations, such as being on a bridge with a Rasha, that are similarly dangerous such that Hashem uses a more strict system to determine whether a person lives or dies.
So no matter what, a person’s fate is in the hands of Hashem. It’s just that there are certain circumstances that even if a person would normally be given life, under those circumstances, his Zechusim would not be enough to save him.
So it’s the same thing with Baalei Bechirah vs. non-Baalei Bechirah. The system Hashem uses to determine life and death based on a person’s merits was designed for non-Baalei Bechirah situations. When a Baal bechirah is involved, it’s like being on a bridge with a Rasha, or a simple Makom Sakanah and the usual system of what kind of zechusim you need to live is no longer applicable. Of course Hashem can save you, but it's harder to be saved from baalei Bechirah just like it's harder to be allowed to live when walking in a makom Sakanah.
So there need not be a Machlokes here. The Ohr HaChaim, the Zohar, the Metzudas, and all the other seforim that say a Baal bechirah can over ride Hashem’s plan only need to mean that they can invalidate Hashem’s usual method of running the world the way a Makom Sakanah can. So it’s true that a Baal bechirah can kill someone even if he doesn’t deserve to be killed, the same way that walking on a bridge can kill someone who otherwise would not deserve to be killed. But just as the collapsed bridge and the death of all who are on it is totally Hashem’s doing, so too death at the hands of a Baal bechirah is totally Hashem’s doing. You would need a greater level of zechusim, even greater than what you would normally need for a miracle, to be saved from a Baal Bechirah. And your usual zechusim would not help. The usual manner of the way the world runs would not apply. Instead, there would be a stricter system.
So Reuven did help Yosef by putting him into the pit, because against snakes and scorpions, because Yosef’s zechusim as a perfect Tzadik would certainly spare him from snakes, but when dealing with baalei bechirah, Hashem doesn’t necessarily save even someone with perfect zechusim; Chananiah Mishael and Azariah were smart for facing the fire instead of Nevuchadnetzar for the same reason.

Just a reminder, the Ohr HaChaim is merely duplicating the Zohar ad loc, so let's refer to this as the Zohar's opinion.
It's not a question of "upsetting the balance." It's a question of Hashem shifting His level of method of judgment from the mode that He usually uses to one that is stricter when Baalei bechirah are involved.
Nobody questions the fact that when someone kills himself it is G-d that decided, allowed, and caused the person to be successful. Had G-d not wanted the guy to kill Himself, he wouldn't have been able to, since he needed G-d's help to do it.
However, also, nobody disagrees that G-d does not want this guy to kill himself, since He said Thou shalt not kill!
So which is it? Does G-d want this guy to be killed or not?
The answer is that for sure G-d would have preferred that this guy not kill himself. In that sense we say G-d did not want this guy to kill himself.
However, after the guy used his free will to decide to kill himself, G-d now willingly and proactively decrees that this guy's decision should become reality. Nobody forced G-d to do this. In this sense we say G-d wanted the guy to get killed. It's two different definitions of "want". Look at it this way:
G-d willingly makes this guy to kill himself now that the guy decided to do it. But G-d would have preferred that the guy not make that decision.
When we drive a car it is not considered a Sakanha since Shomer Pesayim Hashem, but if we jump off a roof, or drive wildly, then yes, we upset the balance and G-d now responds to our wildness by shifting His method of dealing in the world and now deals with you stricter.
The only thing that disturbs the balance is bechirah. If a person is disturbed and cannot control his actions it is not a Bechirah decision.
Many Seforim talk about the Ohr HaChaim.
The Be'er Mayim Chaim in Chayei Sarah on the posuk V'ekod V'eshtachaveh explains with this principle that even though Hashem arranges shiduchim, a person with his bechirah can reject his proper zivug.
The Divrei Yoel in Ekev explains with this principle that even Hashem does not give a person a Nizayon more than he can handle, however, a Baal Bechirah can, meaning that a Baal bechirah who tries to influence you to do an aveirah may present you with a Nisayon stronger than that which Hashem would have given you, that is, a Nisayon too hard for you to handle. This is why it is so important to avoid bad influences, much more than other Nisyonos.
Rabbi Mattisyahu Solomon shlita, the mashgiach of Lakewood, in his Matnas Chaim (Vol. I, "Ais lischok") writes that it always bothered him that the Tur writes that Shabbos HaGodol is called by that name because the Jews miraculously got away with shechting the Egyptian god as a Korban Pesach. He asks, why is this miracle any more impressive than all the miracles that the Jews had in Egypt when they were spared from the Makos for instance?
According to this Zohar, Rabbi Solomon's questions disappears, since all the other miracles involved the Jews being saved from animals and other non-Baalei Bechirah. The fact that the Jews were saved from the Egyptians who were Baalei Bechirah is a much greater miracle.
I had an idea that this Zohar is the meaning of the posuk in Mishle (17:12) "Better to encounter a bear bereaved of its cubs than to meet a fool in his foolishness".
A fool is a Baal bechirah, and can harm you worse than a crazy bear, who, no matter how bad a mood he is in, is not a Baal bechirah and only listens to Hashem.
There are countless places where this Zohar and the OhrHaChaim is discussed.

The Sefer HaChinuch says that you should not be angry at someone for doing something to you because Hashem caused it. This is true even if the damage came through a Bechirah-loophole as you may call it, since even in such a case, Hashem clearly acted to make the Bechirah-choice come true. if someone shoots someone else, even though it does not show the usual mode of Mishpat, but the point of the Chinuch is, if Hashem allowed the gun to shoot, and the bullet to reach its target, etc. etc., why be angry at the shooter? Hashem Himself contributed to the shooting.
The Sefer haChinuch was talking about whether you should be angry at someone; the Ohr HaCham is talking about whether the normal indications of guilt and innocence are in effect.
The answer is no, the usual scales of guilt and innocence are not in effect, but you should still not be angry at the person, since Hashem did make him be successful.
In other words, if someone shoots someone else, the victim may not be as guilty as he normally would have to be in order to sustain such damage through a non-Baal bechirah, but despite his not being so guilty, Hashem still was involved in his being shot. But even according to those who say it is part of Hashem's plan, it doesn’t mean that Hashem involved the murderer. The murderer involved himself. The person would indeed have died of natural causes, but the murderer wanted to murder him and decided to murder him, and so the murderer did. That is why he gets punished - because he independently decided to commit the murder.
Yes, G-d knew he would decide this, but so what? That doesn’t make the murderer any less evil. The decision to murder and the attempt to murder someone is what makes someone evil - and this murderer did all that.
In a case where you put yourself in danger, the danger is given permission to attempt to hurt you because if you violate the Mitzvah of V'Nihsmartem, by putting yourself in a sakanah, the punishment is, you can get hurt. So you did that to yourself with your Bechirah, and Bechirah is not pre-determined.

Understand that, even according to the Ohr HaChaim and Zohar, that a Baal Bechirah can override the default plan Hashem had for you, they definitely agree that if Hashem wants he can intervene and save you form the Baal Bechirah - He can even turn your neck to stone if He will it. It’s only that the level of intervention needed on the part of Hashem is difficult to merit - "zeiin inun dnitzli mibaalei bechirah". However, Bitachon can provide that merit needed for even proactive intervention by Hashem. So the posuk according to them is not saying that because Hashem is protecting me therefore I have bitachon, but rather, since I have bitachon therefore Hashem is protecting me.

Free Will: Jews and Non-Jews

Hashem rewards people for their deeds by bringing fortune to their descendants or friends or relatives. It's like if you are guest of honor at a dinner, your family will sit in the front, not because they deserve it, but because it is an honor for you that they are honored.
So too Hashem rewarded Avraham Avinu that his descendants should merit the opportunities of Judaism. Had someone else in the days of Avraham done what he did, some other nation would be the "Jews".
However, there is a "fairness balance" in that Judaism is not an exclusive club. Anybody can join. We accept converts with open arms.
After the six days of creation, nothing additional was created, including all the souls of all the people ever to be born. Your soul was, for the thousands of years until you were born, your soul was living in the "Otzar HaNeshomos", the "Treasure-hold of Souls", that are destined to be born before Moshiach comes. Your soul was living, in other words, with Hashem. It was enjoying the singing of the angels and the company of G-d.
Then it was "forced" to come into this materialistic, decaying, physical world. Your soul yearns for what it once had - namely, G-d and the heavens. And it wants that back. You feel this urge in your desire to be religious and do Mitzvos. If you succeed, when you return, you will be in a much higher and more pleasurable position than you ever were before you were born. You will be complete, having a total connection with G-d.
If it was up to you, you would probably not choose to be born. But Hashem knows better. Thank G-d that the decision is His. Put it this way -- if it would have been left up to you, and you wouldn't have been born, and then you would have seen what you COULD HAVE had, were you actually born and done Mitzvos, you would complain that it's not fair that you weren't born.
The majority of the world is not humans – there are more animals than humans. And the majority of the world is not even animals - there are plants than animals. And the majority is not even plants – there are more inanimate objects than animate ones, such as rocks and sand.
Every creation has its role to play - and just as the trees cannot complain and say, "It is only fair that we, who outnumber humans, should be given the ability to fulfill the Torah", no animals or human can either. If someone was created as a cow, there is a reason; if he was created as a tree, there is a reason; creations have no right to decide what role they play - G-d decides what’s best for them and the world.
And so, just as in a play or movie, the majority of items are background items and not stars, because even one star needs much support in order to play his role, the same holds true in the world.
You see, if I were to decide your future for you, you could ask why I didn't give you the choice, since your opinion is just as good as mine. But if it's G-d Himself Who chose your future, you should be happy that He, the Perfect choice-maker made the choice for you as opposed to leaving it to you.
It's like asking why Hashem made you rich/poor strong/weak etc. without consulting you first. The answer is He does what's best for you, and if it were up to you, you'd mess things up royally.
Same thing with being a Jew. G-d does what's best for you. Trust Him. If Hashem made you a Jew that means it's the very best thing for you, no questions asked. So why would you want a choice to do what's not best?
Any situation you find yourself in not by your own choice was created by Hashem, and given to you because it is the best possible situation for you.
Not necessarily the least painful or the most fun today, but definitely the best for you in the long run. In other words, if you would understand everything about it, you, too, would have chosen what Hashem gave you. It’s just that you can't see the whole picture, since you're not Hashem, that it looks less than the best.
The reason it pays to be a Jew even though there are many more responsibilities is asked by the meforshim on the Chazal that says "Hashem wanted to give His people more reward so He gave them many Mitzvos". They ask, yes, more reward, but also more potential for punishment. So why is more responsibilities, more Torah and Mitzvos, a good thing?
The Shem MiShmuel (Bamidbar, Shavuos) explains that the question is based on a fallacy.
The question assumes that the measure of reward for a Mitzvah and the punishment for an Aveirah are proportionate. That is a not so. The reward for fulfilling a Mitzvah is so great, much greater than the punishment for doing an Aveirah, such that it is worth even going through the punishment of many Aveiros to get it. So therefore, it is better for us if we have more responsibilities, i.e. more Mitzvos, because even if it means we have more chance to slip up, as long as we have more opportunities to do Mitzvos, we are very, very, ahead of the game.
But that is only regarding the multitude of Mitzvos we have as a Jew. If the question is why be a Jew as opposed to a goy, the answer is simply, that through the seven Mitzvos you don't get Olam Habbah, you don't connect to Hashem. Although non-Jews do get rewarded for their Mitzvos, their reward is in a totally different league than the ultimate, eternal, unending, beyond-imagining reward of the Jew.
Remember, to connect to Hashem, to share the Perfect Pleasure that he has, there is no way except through fulfilling the Torah. (Please see the "Basic Judaism" forum on the site for details.)

Then there is the ability to convert. The reason we discourage converts - not reject them - is to weed out the insincere ones. We do nobody any favors by allowing them to become Jews only for them to later discover that it more difficult than they imagined. The discouragement that we are instructed to use is to emphasize the level of worship that Jews are expected to perform. If the non-Jew responds that he considers it a privilege and not a burden we accept him wholeheartedly.
If you do convert, you will be accepted wholeheartedly. The phrase "Once a goy always a goy" is not in the Orthodox lexicon. That will not happen. Moshe Rabbeinu married a convert, as did Yehoshua. Our history is replete with prominent converts, such as Onkeles the great translator of the Torah.
That not withstanding, there are converts that have caused us problems. The most prominent among these is the Erev Rav - the multitude of converts that came out of Egypt with us. That caused untold problems for our nation.
But whether someone is going to be a problem or an asset is their choice. And whichever way they choose, they will be recognized for it.
Some say they have a problem with what is being written about Geirim in Orthodox papers, but then say that these articles are referring to Conservative and Reform Geirim. Yes, such so-called Geirim are only negative detriments to the world, since they are not real Geirim at all, but rather non-Jews who were mislead into believing that they are Jewish by unscrupulous or ignorant people.
But if someone wants to be a sincere Ger they will be accepted. But the fact is that part of being sincere is accepting the Halachah, which explicitly rejects those Conservative and Reform bogus converts, and if you do want to convert, you will have to accept that Halachah as well.
Incidentally, there are a number of books dealing with the many positive aspects of converts in our community. For a small sampling check out http://st30.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/nsearch?query=conversion&catalog=eichlers&B1=Find [link no longer works -taon]
I happen to know a number of real wonderful converts. One of them, a black woman by the name of Rena Blum of Far Rockaway, New York, is a popular speaker at Yeshiva PTA's and women's gatherings, and is currently working on a book about her experiences. All of the above converts, incidentally, are married, some to other converts, some to Baalei Teshuva, and some to none of the above.
You may not remember Hashem asking you to be Jewish, and I don't remember either. It happened to our souls, and, according to the Shelah, the "stuff" that our physical bodies are made out of, but it was not the kind of conversation that we normally store in memory. But don't worry, it happened. It says so in the Torah.
R. Akiva Eiger ZT"L writes that when the nations refused to accept the Torah, not every single member of every single nation refused. Most did. In general, they did, but there were individuals who did want to accept it. Those individuals, says R. Akiva Eiger, become Geirim.

Free Will and Hashem knowing the future

Let's say you have a time machine and you go into the future and observe people's actions. Would anybody say that because you peeked into the future actions of those people they no longer have free will?
No. Rather, you observed what they WILL do with their free will. So too Hashem looks into the future and sees what people will choose.
Or maybe you magically get a hold of next week's newspaper. You see what is going to happen in 7 days. This doesn't affect their Bechirah.

The fact is that knowing the future does not compel the future. Nobody disagrees with that.
The Rambam asks different question, based on the premise that the future - and past and present - only exist because G-d wills them to exist. In other words, the universe is created out of G-d's will - please see the "Basic Judaism" forum on the site for an explanation of this.
So the Rambam was asking that since where G-d is concerned, past present and future and really one and the same, and since G-d's will is the only power that can make anything happen in this universe, and therefore id G-d knows someone is going to do something, the only way that can happen is if G-d wills that he does it.
The Rambam says that even though G-d knows what a person does, and G-d's will is the only possible thing that can make him do it, still, G-d gave us Bechirah and allowed us to do things outside of His will.
This, the Rambam says, is what we cannot understand.

Some explain it by saying that because Hashem is outside the bounds of time, He sees the past, present, and future instantaneously, and so he knows what we will choose. The problem is, if the only reason that Hashem knows the future is because from His perspective the future "already happened", then His knowledge of the future would be limited to only the future that actually will happen. But Hashem would not be able to know what will happen in a future "what if" scenario that will not actually take place.
For example, we know that everything Hashem does is "gam zu l'tovah". So if Hashem, let's say wants to decide whether someone should break his arm, He will consider: If he breaks his arm, such-and-such will happen; if he does not break his arm, then scenario B will happen, and so forth.
Yet only one of those scenarios is actually going to be the future. And so, if Hashem only knows the future because it is to Him like the past is to us, because time isn’t a constraint, then while we understand how Hashem knew what will happen, how can Hashem know what would have happened in different circumstances, since that scenario never existed, neither in past, present, or future?
From the fact that Hashem knows not only what will happen, but also what would have happened, it is clear that Hashem's knowledge of the future is not only because He can see the future like we see the present, but also, He is able to accurately know what will happen not because He sees it in the future. And therefore, He knows what we will choose NOT only because He "sees" us choosing it in the future, but through some other means as well.
There is another objection to this answer as well, leveled by the Ohr Someach, but it is actually related to the above. He says, if to Hashem the future is like the past, and it "already" happened, then why would Hashem send a Navi to tell the people to do Teshuva if He already "sees" that they will not do Teshuva? Or, worse still, from His perspective, that they "already have not" done Teshuva? Obviously, says the Ohr Someach, if a Navi is sent to tell people to do Teshuva, that means they still may do Teshuva, yet Hashem "knows" that they will not????
So the answer doesn't really work.
Hashem's awareness of the future has nothing to do with "knowledge". Hashem does not have "knowledge" --- even though he is not ignorant of anything. The way that Hashem knows things is not within our comprehension, but we do know for sure that the tool Hashem uses is not what we call "knowledge" in any way whatsoever -- Hashem is above any such attributes (please see the G-d forum for detailed explanation of this). And therefore, from the fact that knowledge of the future precludes free will, we cannot assume that Hashem's awareness of the future also precludes free will, since Hashem's awareness is not through "knowledge".


The question can be asked, how could it be that the Torah said what people would do before they did them? Both the GRA and the Baal Shem Tov answer this saying that the Torah is, in its "pnimiyus", comprised of different Names of Hashem and combination thereof. That’s what Moshe got on Har Sinai. As the events unfolded, the names formed simple Hebrew words, but had different events occurred, the words would have been formed differently. So even though the Torah was written before the world, the "external" combination of the letters and words happened as the events transpired.

---

Bechirah II

Bechirah means not only the ability to do the right thing over the wrong thing, but the ability to choose right because it is right.
If we would be able to see the full picture, a cheeseburger would look like some kind of poison which if you eat will cause you excruciating pain, stolen money would look white hot such that if you touch it it will incinerate your hand, and a Mitzvah would look more desirable than a ten million dollar bill.
The choice between doing a mitzvah or an aveirah would be the same as The Lady Or The Tiger, but you would know behind which door lurks the tiger.
Not much of a choice.
So if you would have the real picture, you would then really not have Bechirah, because although you would have the ability to choose, only an idiot would choose scorching fire over eternal pleasure.
In such a case, your choosing the Mitzvah would not show that you are willing to choose right over wrong, but only that you would rather choose pleasure over pain.
Evil people would choose right over wrong in equal measure with righteous people.
You would not get any credit for choosing the Mitzvah that way.
That's not the type of Bechirah Hashem wanted us to have.
Bechirah means the ability to choose right from wrong because it is right. Because you care about choosing right. Because you value what's right.
So what Hashem did was to give you the two options, the lady and the tiger, and you know which is which, but in order to ensure that you choose the lady because of what she is rather than for obvious reasons, Hashem makes the tiger not so scary and the lady not so appealing.
At least not in this world.
It's to balance your Bechirah to make sure you choose right from wrong, not pleasure from pain.
It's like the famous story of a guy, Frank we'll call him, who meets a girl online. After a number of emails and IM's he was impressed with her personality and the finally decided to meet, the next day, in Penn Station. "How will I know who you are?" he asked.
"I'll be wearing a white rose," she said.
Well, Frank arrived, he looked around, and there was an elderly, diminutive lady, with white hair, wearing a white rose. He sighed, he put his chin up, he walked over, smiled and said: "Hi. I'm Frank. May I take you to dinner?"
As he looked at her, she said: "Young man. I don't exactly know what this is all about. But I was told that if you came up and asked me to dinner that I should point you over to that lady over yonder."
And there was the most bedazzling girl-of-his-dreams, who became his blushing bride and the mother of his children.
Similarly Hashem hides the "real picture" because wants to make sure we choose the Mitzvos for the right reasons. So he makes Mitzvos appear in this world not the way they really are.
But whereas Frank believed that his girl was old and undesirable, Hashem, in His benevolence, allows us to know, intellectually, that the Mitzvah is most dazzling piece of beauty that we can imagine.

Hashem always balances the will to do good and the will to do bad evenly, so your bechira is full, you can choose either way. For example, after experiencing the miracles of the Makos, had Paroh decided to let the Jews out, that would not have been considered Teshuva, since he was doing it out of fear of his life. Anyone who sees the Makos, therefore, would really not have Bechirah anymore.
So Hashem "hardened his heart" - not to the point where he was not able to let the Jews out, but rather just enough to make Paroh objective again, to counterbalance the effects of seeing the miracles. The hardening of his heart returned Paroh's bechirah, not took it away, since the Makos took it away already, in the opposite direction. This is an extreme case of "evening out" free will. Similarly, how is it that Hashem held Har Sinai over Bnei Yisrael to force us to accept the Torah or die? It’s because we first said "naaseh vnishma" which means we were willing to accept the Torah. Then, after we saw the fires and thunder, we got scared. A cold feet kind of thing. We wanted to accept it but were frightened to make the move. So Hashem pushed us to do what we wanted to do the whole time but were scared to. The fact that we already said naaseh vnishmah before the mountain was put on top of us means we wanted to accept it.

The nutshell version of how this works is:
There are 3 parts to you.
1) The Neshama - which is always is drawn to good;
2) The Guf and its animating force, the nefesh - is always is drawn to physicality (unless conditioned by years of training to do otherwise, as is the case by Tzadikim);
3) The Ruach - is the "you" that has the decision whether to follow the Guf/Nefesh or the Neshama.
The Ruach is not the "part of Hashem" that the seforim talk about - that is the Neshoma. The Nefesh is a simple, crude, animal-soul, that wants animal things. These two forces are tied together when a Neshoma comes down into a Guf, and their synthesis makes for a terrible and frustrating struggle. The Ruach is tied to each of them, in between, and the Ruach can pull any which way it so desires. The other two parts always pull one way. The Ruach has to decide who it wants to side with.
What enables Bechirah in us is that, whereas animals are drawn only to gashmius and not ruchnius, and angels are drawn only to Ruchnius and not Gashmius, humans are drawn to both gashmius and ruchnius.
So when Hashem created Adam out of the "dirt of the land" he was in essence an animal; when He "blew into his nostrils the soul of life", he became a conflicted man, that is, a man made out of two opposite forces - gashmius and ruchnius.
This internal opposition is needed for Nechirah, but it is not the only thing that is needed.
In order to facilitate Bechirah, the two opposing forces have to be able to exist together in and as one entity. This is normally impossible, since Gasmus and Ruchnius do not mix, like oil and vinegar, or like apples and communism. They don’t blend.
So Hashem created man with something called a Tzelem, which is part way between Gashmius and ruchnius (or a little of each, depends how you look at it), in order to link the neshama to the Guf.
Now the Neshama and the Guf, because they are both spiritually and physically linked to the core "man" - the Ruach that we spoke about before, both contribute something to him. The Neshama provides the man with the ability to be a First Cause, and the Guf provides the Ruach with something to make better, to change, to sanctify.
If the person takes what the neshama gives him and uses it to sanctify the guf, he and the guf both become holy. If he takes what the neshama gives him and uses it to subjugate the neshama to the guf's desires, then the neshama slowly atrophies and he becomes more and more like an animal. Worst case scenario, his neshama leaves him and he is left with only the animal parts of himself, at which point he loses his share in Olam habah.
So both are correct. The Ruach makes the decisions, but that ability is enabled because of the link it has to the neshama.

The Yetzer Tov is your soul, which tells you to do good. It is also your mind, which tells you to do good, since reason and logic always demand making the right decision. If Hashem wanted you to do bad, He would just remove it.

The strengths of the Yetzer Tov and Yetzer Horah are always balanced by Hashem so that you are able to choose good if you so choose.
There are also two Yetzer Horahs:
1) The physical part of you, which includes your body and the "animal" part of your soul - those parts of you desire materialistic things, since they are material. We have to resist their pull.
2) An angel designated by Hashem to create Nisyonos for you. This angel messes with your head, tries to fool you into thinking aveiros and mitzvos, confuses you, and is very precise in the amount of "pressure" he puts on you to do an aveirah. The idea that "the bigger a person is the greater his yetzer" means this yezter - not the first one, since the greater a person is, the less strong the materialistic part of him becomes.


Sometimes the Yetzer Horah makes you do something bad that you know is bad - like when you speak loshon horah - and sometimes the Yetzer Horah makes you think bad is good so that you won’t even feel bad when you do it or regret it afterward.

Like when you’re convinced that getting into a mixed kiruv organization is a big mitzvah because you’re involved in kiruv.

But the reality is you don’t need to hang around with girls to be mekarev people.

Here's news: Your Yetzer Horah itself wants you to beat it.
Look at your Yetzer Horah not as an unbeatable opponent whose purpose is to beat you, but a sparring partner whose purpose is to make you as strong and skilled as possible. It will fight just hard enough to make you put in a good effort, but never too hard for you to win.
And Hashem makes sure that each individual gets the particular sparring partner best suited for his individual needs. In whatever areas you need more training, or have greater potential, that's where your Yetzer Horah will spar with you.
And the stronger you get, the more effort your sparring partner is going to have to exert in order to get you to an even higher level of skill and strength.
That's why Tzadikim have a "greater" Yetzer Horah. It means that if they want to get even stronger, they have to fight a stronger opponent.
And the strength and skill that you get from the spiritual exercise with the Yetzer Horah is what is gives you never-ending, infinite happiness forever in Olam Habah.
The reason we have "so many problems" today (and not only today) is because people have a choice. They can choose to get up, put in the effort and earn their muscles. Or they can sit back and have their Neshoma get beaten up. It's a lot easier, but less rewarding in the long term.
Most of us get trounced a lot. But that doesn't matter. What counts is that we get back up and fight again. And again. And again. And whereas with a physical trainer, you are never guaranteed of reaching your goals, in the fight with the Yetzer, Hashem guarantees that if we keep trying, we'll slam him down so hard that he'll never get up again.
Forever.

---

A lot of people don't know this, but the story of Satan rebelling was actually taken from us. They messed up the details - nothing can "rebel" against Hashem unless Hashem allows it, but Hashem did allow the angel S"M to make a mistake in understanding his mission, and he did end up revolting against good, and Hashem did "expel" him because of it. He still functions, but differently, and on a more evil level than had he not acted the way he did. All this of course, Hashem allowed.

Basically, when Hashem created Adam, he wanted all parts of the universe to contribute willingly to the composition of man, so that whatever happens to man would affect every part of the universe. This way, when man would get in trouble, the entire universe would have a reason to pray for him. S"M refused to contribute, and Hashem "lowered" him because of it. So S"M tries to bring man down with him. (Moshe Rabbeinu, however, is an exception. Because of his greatness, the S"M ended up contributing to him). Now all of this is allowed by Hashem of course, which is where the idol-worshipers, such as Christians, messed up the story. They say it was done against the will of Hashem, which cannot happen.

Judaism doesn’t believe in a "devil" the same way Christians do. There is a Satan, but, unlike the Christian concept of a war between the Satan and G-d, we know the Satan is G-d's loyal servant, more like a sparring partner who fights us savagely, but whose goal is for us to be able to knock him out. There is no force in the world that is not subject to G-d's will.

---

Bechirah - Free Will I

As discussed previously, there is a law of physics called causation, which means that everything that happens, happens for a reason. (Every effect has a cause.) Therefore, if you get out of bed in the morning, there must have been a cause of that action. There was, of course, namely, your decision to get up.
But what caused the decision? There had to be something that CAUSED you to WANT to get out of bed, and so forth. And if every decision has a cause then free will is impossible, because free will means the ability to choose without a cause, but rather just because you decided it.
In other words, if you had two people, with the exact same lives, the exact same biology, the exact same environment and experiences -- the exact same set of causes, could they ever make different decisions?
The answer is no, since if everything happens because of a particular cause then identical causes must create identical effects.
Yet bechirah means two people in an identical situation with identical causes can choose two different effects (choices), simply because that is the power of their free will. This is impossible according to the laws of physics.
Every decision a person makes, according to science, must have a cause. Meaning, there must be a cause that he chose A instead of B. Choice cannot come freely. There must be a REASON why a particular choice was made. Or a reason for WANTING to choose A over B. EVERYTHING must have a reason. And in a world where everything must have a reason, nothing happens "freely", including your choices.
But we know that Hashem is the Cause of Causes, First Cause. That He does things simply because He wants, without any prior cause. Hashem is not bound to the laws of causation.
That's why, in order for us to have Bechirah, Hashem had to take a part of Himself and put it into us. The Seforno explains that "b'talmainu", the "image of G-d" means Free Will.
Free will is a miracle, since free will can't really exist. And the way Hashem brought about this miracle was, He gave us a little piece of Himself ("chelek eloka mima'al") that enables us, within the boundaries of mitzvos and aveiros, to choose our course freely and without prior causes, just like He can choose.
Outside of the realm of Mitzvos and Aveiros, there is no free will.
According to the principle of ain od milvado there can be no free will. Since everything in the world is merely an expression of the Will of G-d, no will can exist independent of His. It's like if you imagine, in your mind, a little world with little people in it. Obviously they cannot make any decisions independent of you, and certainly they cannot do anything against your will. That's how the world exists in relation to Hashem, kav'yochol. We're all expressions of His will. So bechirah cannot exist.
But it does, because Hashem put a little piece of Himself into those humans that He created as expression of His will, so that in each of those phantasms, there is a little sliver of reality, of Hashem Himself.
And that's where bechirah comes from. It's true that ain od milvado, but part of the "milvado", part of Hashem, is our Neshomos, and that is what enables us to think and choose freely, as if we really existed on our own. Our Neshomos, as "chelek elokah mima'al, in a sense, do exist on their own.

[An interesting but inescapable conclusion of all this is that an atheist cannot believe in free will. Since everything in the world has a prior cause, that would include his choices, his desires, and the reasons for his desires. To the atheist, it would be impossible for two people with the exact same set of causes - heredity, environment, etc. - to make two different choices. Which means, his choices are not "his", but the result of his "causes."]

---

Bechirah is NOT a manifestation of G-d's will any more than G-d Himself is a manifestation of G-d's will, since Bechirah is a "chelek elokah mi'maal". The miracle of Bechirah is that a human can have appended to him something that is really a part of Hashem.
So, in the hypothetical situation of Hashem making a rock so heavy He can’t lift it, the difference between the independently heavy rock and the independently selective human being, is that you want the heaviness of the rock to be a creation, which cannot be, but the ability to choose of the human being is not a creation but part of Hashem Himself.
So now perhaps you will ask, can Hashem likewise "graft" part of His own power onto the rock such that He would be unable to lift it, since in this case the heaviness of the rock is also not a creation?
The answer is no, because G-d cannot limit Himself in any way. He cannot kill Himself, cannot corpify Himself, cannot weaken Himself. This is because being all-powerful does not include the ability to be weak. Being weak is not considered a form of "power". G-d cannot create something beyond the limits of His power because there are no limits to His power, and that, Hashem cannot change.
So therefore, whereas Hashem CAN graft His own power onto a human giving Him free will, He cannot graft His own power onto a rock giving it the ability to limit Him.
Human Bechirah does not limit Hashem the way a too-heavy rock would, since Hashem has total over-riding control over the Bechirah. It's like a rock so heavy that Hashem CHOOSES not to lift it.
So Hashem would NOT be able to create human beings with Bechirah that He would not be ABLE to control if He would so choose.
The comparable question to the rock would be: Can G-d create people too stiff-necked for Him to control?
To that, the answer is "no."
In short: There cannot exist within the boundaries of creation, the ability to choose independently. However, that ability does exist beyond creation, i.e. in Hashem Himself. That ability, since it can exist within albeit beyond creation, can be miraculously appended to a creature enabling the creature to utilize the supernatural ability.
But the ability to overpower G-d does not exist even beyond creation. It does not exist even within G-d. Therefore it cannot be appended to any being, human OR G-d.

Bechirah only works in cases where Yiras Shemayim can be involved. If you think about it, though, even the most mundane situations can involve a Mitzvah or Aveira. An example given on the forum was painting a room. It may not seem to fall under this category, but if you wanted to, you could decide to pick a color people would like and would make the room seem more cheery, or you could pick a color you like, but makes most people feel nauseous. That is a Yiras Shamayim case, and you would have free will. The rule is this: If this decision would be made differently by Moshe Rabbeinu than by a Rasha, it is a Yiras Shamayim decision and Bechirah plays a role. If Moshe Rabbeinu and the Rasha have no reason to make different decisions then it is a non-Bechirah decision.

When you rebel against Hashem, Hashem allows you to make the decision to rebel, and then, yes, He actually causes you to bring the decision to sin to fruition. Although the decision you made was against what G-d wanted you to do, but it is not dualism because it is the Will Of G-d that you should be able to go contrary to His preferences if you so desire.
It's like when you allow your kid to do something you don’t want him to do, knowing he will get hurt doing it because that way he will learn "the hard way" and be able to ultimately function better on his own.
So too Hashem allows us to do wrong because without the ability to choose wrong, we would never develop the ability to choose right over wrong.
G-d created pain as the way to teach us these lessons because whether we learn these lessons or not is OUR CHOICE - not G-d's decision - it is a Bechirah decision whether we learn and improve. And G-d looked at the world and He saw that of all the infinite possible ways to create the opportunity to learn, people will respond positively and improve best if the lesson is taught through the medium of pain.

In other words, G-d said, "OK, people, your job is to learn lessons. It’s your choice if you want to learn them or not, and I will teach them in the way that you will choose to learn them the most."

Then G-d looks into the world and sees what will happen if he teaches lessons in every conceivable way. He sees that people are going to ignore the lessons the LEAST if they are taught through the medium of pain.

So G-d says, "OK, you want it this way, that’s what you will get." Because not leaning the lesson, not doing teshuva, not getting a kapara, is worse than the pain. And if we would be on the level to respond to our sins without feeling pain, then we would not need it - but the reality is that people chose the method of G-d's running the world, since they do not reach high levels without being prodded by the pain.

Pain is also a punishment for wrongdoing. And there HAS to be pain as punishment because otherwise there would be no justice if people would just get away with doing bad - PLUS there would be no motivation for people to do good. SO pain is also a deterrent - and it is needed because people choose not to be deterred if there is no pain awaiting their bad choices.


If a person does a sin, the pain he receives is like a slap on the wrist compared to what he would have gotten in Olam Habah. When we get to Olam Habah and we see how many sins were erased because of pain we suffered in this world, the only question we are going to have is why didn’t Hashem give us more pain to erase more aveiros??

There is a Gemora Yerushalmi where Rabi Akiva meets Nachum Ish Gam Zu. Nachum is suffering and Rabi Akiva says "Woe to me that I see you like this." Nachum answers "Woe is to me that I do NOT see you like this!"

Rabi Akiva asks "Why are you cursing me?"

Nachum answers "And why are you rejecting suffering?"

---