A Popular Dictionary of Judaism
The belief that each individual can make free moral choices.
According to *Deuteronomy 30:19, *Moses told the Israelites, ‘I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life.’ Later the *prophets emphasized the importance of *repentance—a concept that presupposes free will. The belief in free will became a central principle of rabbinic Judaism and philosophers such as *Maimonides tried to reconcile this with the belief in *God’s omniscience. In the 20th Century, the insights of modern psychology have proved to be more of a threat to the notion of human freedom, but most Jewish thinkers still maintain that moral responsibility is an inherent part of the created order.
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