[Avodah] "God who knows the future"

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Aug 04, 2011 at 09:40:44AM -0400, David Riceman wrote:
> RMB:
>> I think he's clear here, as per the reisha of your paraphrase. The  
>> Ramban's words: "VeHashem, hayodeia' asidos, tzivehu..." So it's not a  
>> question of whether the Ramban believes Hashem can know the future, but 
>> how to explain the seifa of the paragraph in that light.
>
> That's not the Ramban's literary style. When he uses a title it's not
> a prescription, it's a pointer...
...
> In this case he's identifying the command as situational: God, not acting
> in His aspect of legislator, but acting in His aspect of tactician.

You lost me, because in talking about how the phrased is used, you do
not address its actual content.

The title is "G-d who knows the future". So how could this NOT indicate
the Rambam believes that Hashem does actually yodeia' asidos? It would
be a weired idiom to use if his later "ilai" referred to HQBH /not/
knowing what their choice would be. Or even if in another comment the
Rambam wrote this -- either Hs is the Yodeia' Asidos, or He doesn't
know. Even if in two comments, that would constitute a setirah.

> That's not what the Ramban says.  He uses the word "ulay", which implies  
> doubt....

Perhaps not. If this were a pasuq I would argue that "ulai" refers to just
leaving both sides open. Ulai appears to be related to "o + lo/lulei"
(c.f. the BDB), and this derivation also better connects ulai to ulam
(meaing: however; as in: ve'ulam "Luz" sheim ha'ir barishonah).

For us, leaving options open is usually the consequence of doubt; but
that needn't mean that the Ramban was referring to Divine Doubt, in the
same paragraph that he calls G-d Knower of the Future. Just that He,
as RHM put it, left both options open. In HQBH's case, this has to do
with allowing for bechirah.


I noticed no one addressed my comment yesterday that the whole dilemma
makes no sense to me. For G-d to know the future we are assuming He is in
the present. Hashem simply Knows, there is no meaning to the question of
when He knows. So I don't even see how the problem gets off the ground,
that we can discuss various resolutions to it.

I also think this is the essence of the Or Samayach's answer in his
multi-page section "HaKol Tzafui vehaReshus Nesunah" in Hil' Teshuvah."
(With a drastically different spin, admittedly.) R' Meir Simchah haKohein
says the reason why G-d's knowledge of the future doesn't imply a prior
cause to my decision, rather than free will, is the same as why His
knowledge of the past doesn't. Since Hashem is lemaalah min hazeman,
both knowledges are the same in kind.

-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Zion will be redeemed through justice,
micha at aishdas.org        and her returnees, through righteousness.
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