[Avodah] "God who knows the future"

[T613K at aol.com]

From: David Riceman <driceman at optimum.net>
old TK:  
> From our human point of view G-d makes it appear "as if" He  doesn't 
> know what we will do -- He does that by the simple expedient of  keeping 
> US in the dark about the future. But of course He does know and  yet that 
> does not take away our bechira, because WE don't  know.

RDR:  How do you see that in the Ramban?
 
TK:  I don't see that in the Ramban, I see that inside my  head.  I wasn't 
addressing the Ramban, I was only addressing the  question, according to my 
understanding, of how our bechirah does not limit  G-d's ability to see the 
future, or vice versa.



old TK: > To say that if G-d has total foreknowledge,  then we don't have 
free 
> will, or if we have free will, then He  doesn't have foreknowledge, is a 
> plain contradiction to what Chazal  said. It's in Pirkei Avos. "Hakol 
> tzafui vehareshus  nesunah."

RDR: I would say that the naive translation of that is: "You  can do what 
you 
want, but God sees what you do".  "Tzafui" need not  imply prediction.



TK: "Tzafui" absolutely does mean foreknowledge.  And I don't want to  hurt 
anyone's feelings but I really think that the denial that Hashem knows  the 
future is apikorsus. 
 
 
 

--Toby Katz
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