[Avodah] "God who knows the future"

[harchinam]

On Sun, Jul 31, 2011 at 20:09, David Riceman <driceman at optimum.net> wrote:
> I happened accross a curious Ramban recently (Parshas Shlah...
>                                                        so that maybe they
> would remember and return to God (ulay yizkru v'yashuvu el hashem)."

> But doesn't that last clause imply that God didn't know the future here?
> The naive reading of this passage is that the Ramban agrees, if you'll
> pardon the anachronism, with the Ralbag, who says that God can't know all
> the details of the future because that would deny human free will.

The way that I understand this concept is that Hashem gives us free will
to do what we will do, but He, who created us and knows his creations
intimately, knows what we are going to do and how things will turn out.

In the sentence that you quoted, Hashem commanded Moshe to send one nasi
from each tribe to give them the best chance at free will that could be
given, while at the same time knowing how things would turn out.

I assume you either have children or have known children. Is it not a
common parental experience that a parent can leave a child to choose
to do or not do something but can see exactly what is going to happen
without intervention? What if you see that your child, a chair, and a
jar of cookies or treats on a high shelf are in the kitchen at the same
time and you see the child pushing the chair towards the shelves? You
know that without any intervention you will see your child climbing
on the chair to reach the jar, the chair teetering precariously, the
jar of cookies will fall and then so will the child and then you will
hear wailing and you will see a broken cookie jar on the floor. And you
don't even have to be a navi! You just have to be this child's parent
to understand or in other words "to see the future" in this case.

*** Harchinam
     out in harei yehuda