[Avodah] Changing God's Mind

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Micha Berger wrote:
> By turning to the Borei one changes the factors that go
> into His decision.

R' Richard Wohlberg asked:
> how would you respond to "If God is omniscient (and of course,
> knows the future), then how can His mind be changed? In other
> words, God knows what His decisions will be, so it's almost
> an oxymoron to say that your prayers may change His decision.

RRW is correct; we cannot change G-d's mind. For a given situation, If G-d feels that "A" is His response, there is nothing we can do change His mind to prefer the "B" response.

But what we CAN do is to change the *situation*. We can become closer to Him in various ways, and then it's a whole new scenario. And perhaps our actions will have tipped the balance towards one of the many alternate situations in which "B" had been His chosen response from the beginning.

Some may say I'm being simplistic. But to me it really seems simple.

Akiva Miller
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