[Avodah] Do Souls have agency?

[Yonatan Kaganoff]

Assuming the existence of  souls & an afterlife (for souls) from a
traditional Jewish perspective do souls in the afterlife have agency (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_(philosophy))?


(For purposes of this question, I'm bracketing out Free Will questions.)

Most texts about the afterlife describe a series of stages/places/steps
that a soul goes through without much choice on the soul’s part.  That
indicates a lack of agency.

However, there is much Midrashic literature about great men & women (such
as the Avos or Moshe Rabbeinu) having some degree of agency after their
deaths.

But Midrashic literature often anthropomorphically and mythopoetically
ascribes agency to many things such as abstract ideas & inanimate objects,
not meant to be taken literally. So one could argue that when Midrashim
describe the Avos interceding on behalf of their descendants, they are
speaking mythopoetically.

And there are stories in the Gemara like that of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi in
Kesuvos 103a making Kiddush for his family after his death. But this might
be limited to great men or it might be an Aggadata not meant to be taken
literally.

Within Chassidic literature (and Early Modern Kabbalah) there are
indications that dead Tzaddikim are agentic insofar as they can choose to
help their Chassidim after their death, but this might be limited to
Tzaddikim and one would have to accept the theology of Chassidus.

Many understandings of praying at the graves of one’s ancestors or
Tzaddikim imply that the dead are somehow interceding one’s behalf. In
which case the dead are indeed agentic. (Of course this might violate
Rambam’s fifth *Ikkar Emunah*, but that’s a separate issue.)

What other sources address this question?
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