[Avodah] ad hayom hazeh

[Zev Sero]

On 24/11/20 8:43 pm, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
> 1) Looking from the perspective of Adam and Chava before they sinned: 
> Was "the desired end state" an entry into Olam Haba the very next day? 
> Or was "the desired end state" that they should err, and then grow by 
> learning from that error?

Both.  The original desired end state was to go immediately, and that 
would have been good.  But the end state that we will eventually achieve 
after thousands of years of work will be better.

The same applies to your second question. Had our ancestors entered the 
Land three days after leaving Chorev, it would have been good.  What 
they achieved after 40 years in the desert was in some ways better -- 
except for the fact that they didn't immediately build the permanent 
BHMK.  But even that will eventually work out, because when we finally 
do build it it will be better than it would have been.

Basically all these boil down to the same question: the advantage of 
Baalei Teshuva over Tzadikim, or the advantage of the Or Mitoch 
Hachoshech, the light that comes out of darkness.  Obviously "echta 
ve'ashuv" is not a derech.  But bediavad it turns out that by sinning 
and repenting one ends up in a better place than one would have achieved 
without the sin.


[Email #2. -micha]

R' Joel Rich asked:
>  Yes, but theoretically if each individual made decisions that
>  in total did not get to the desired end state, doesn't this
>  imply that HKBH would have to limit someone's bechira to reach
>  the end state?

A simple answer is that that is so unlikely to happen that we need not 
take it into consideration.  It's theoretically possible, but only in 
the sense that it's theoretically possible for all the air in a room to 
gather on one side, and suffocate those who are on the other side. In 
practice that is what we call impossible, and we never allow for the 
possibility that it might happen.  The same would apply to the 
possibility, for instance, not only that the Mitzrim would refuse to 
enslave the Jews but that no nation would take their place. In practice 
that couldn't have happened.

-- 
Zev Sero            Wishing everyone a *healthy* and happy 5781
zev at sero.name       "May this year and its curses end
                      May a new year and its blessings begin"