You have almost endless choices in life. But most of those choices you or other people have created. Many others are incidental or inconsequential. You might make any such choices in this way or in that way. Is this free will? What good to you are choices that G-d has not created?
How many choices actually constitute choices of free-will? Certainly only those choices which G-d Himself creates for you, for only G-d has the power to guarantee that what you choose is what you'll get. Yet what does it mean to say that even such choices are free?
What does G-d have to do in order to make them free for you? What did G-d have to do in order to make Adam's choice free, to disobey G-d and eat of the Tree of the Kowledge of Good or Evil, or to obey G-d and not eat of it? Did He not have to create and destroy worlds?
We want to say that free choice is free in the sense of free will, that there is no constraint forcing you to choose one way or the other. But if you knew the consequences fully of each way you might decide would it not affect your decision? So is ignorance of the possible consequences a necessary part of free will?
But you are intelligent. How can you have no idea of what the consequences of your choices might be? In fact G-d told Adam what the consequences of disobedience would be and by implication what the consequences of obedience would be. It had to be through unbelief in what G-d said that Adam became ignorant of this. Is unbelief therefore a necessary element in free-will?
We run into many problems when we seriously try to understand free will and free choice. Perhaps we are at fault for creating these problems by using such a broad term as "free" in the first place. Do we simply not mean, unconstrained choice? And is it not really something more like responsible and accountable will that we are thinking of in describing this certain attribute of Adam?
What then do we mean by saying that there are choices that G-d has directly created and those which He has not directly created, but that have been created by G-d's creatures? It is clear what we mean when we say that G-d has given someone a choice. The choice consits of something in particular but what is most important about it is that it is a choice that is a part of G-d's relationship with that person. That is what was most important about Adam's choice.
Having to make the choice meant that Adam and cHavah had to choose what relationship they would have with G-d. In fact, it is only in this aspect that there is any free will or can be any free choice. For human beings, like other creatures, have no power and therefore no freedom to change anything in the world in any way on their own, that is to say, if G-d does not empower their choice. So every choice that is actually free to make a difference in the world is only free within the relationship that exists between G-d and Adam.
Free will is not something that exists in a vacuum - as if G-d created it as a power that Adam could use on their own and having created it then stepped back out of the way. But this is the way we often speak of it and think of it, as if we had been given power over creation to do as we will, and G-d had bound Himself to not interfere until the end when He would judge the results. These ideas just show our arrogance and insensitivity to G-d. No such power independent from G-d exists. Everywhere G-d actually gives us a choice He gives it to us knowing full well that He is the only power that can make any real changes in the world. Indeed, G-d is the only power.
We should ask again, What is free will? What is free choice? It is something that only exists in G-d's love. If free will only exists in G-d's love then every choice which He gives to us which we make as He desires is a choice made in a manner that brings Him joy and every choice given to us which is made in a manner which He does not desire is a choice made in a manner that brings Him pain. And there is no other kind of free will.
Do we fear the day of judgment when G-d will look at what we have done and be pleased with us or displeased? Whatever we have done through the choices He gave us has already brought G-d joy or caused Him pain. Otherwise it would not have had any power to be done by us at all. On the day of judgment we will know this. We will know the joy we brought G-d and the pain we brought G-d. We will know that every choice that was given to us from Above that we made, we made in intimate relationship with our Creator, even if we deceived ourselves and did not believe it at the time.
It is time that we stopped thinking of ourselves as having any power apart from G-d to effect things either for good or for evil. It is time that we faced the truth that while we have turned our backs on G-d, He has not turned His back on us, otherwise we would not be here at all. It is time that we began to wonder about the mystery of G-d's love for us and how He suffers so much on account of us every day. It is time that we became again like very little children and prayed for help in making every choice that He gives to us. Then we will begin to know the true meaning of free will.
