[Avodah] mazal?

[Joel Rich]

The genara (Shabbat 146) disputes whether yesh or ein mazal lyisrael. The
overwhelming majority say ein mazal which is interpreted as meaning that
good deeds and prayer can overcome what was otherwise predestined (AIUI).
Most of the proofs seem based on cases where the amoraim knew what the
result was supposed to be but somehow it did not occur. I always thought
that ein mazal was a slam dunk, but now it occurs to me that there’s a very
strong reason for saying yesh (that at least sometimes a future result
can’t be changed by human efforts.)

If every decree can be changed by human effort, it would seem to me that it
would be theoretically quite possible that HKBH could not promise us
anything with 100% certainty since there would always be a combination of
human efforts, even though extremely low probability, which would not yield
that result.  Thoughts?

bsorot tovot

joel rich
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