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<p>In Avodah Digest V25#362, RAM wrote:<br>
> How does this happen? How CAN it happen? If they had identical experiences in the past, won't they make identical decisions in the present? Clearly, they must have some sort of desire for this or for that which had not been pre-programmed, because if everything *was* pre-programmed, then what happens to responsibility? How can he be given praise or censure for decisions that were pre-programmed? <<br>
If we posit that "responsibility" (and anything else you care to categorize under or associate with "yeitzer hatov") isn't present ab initio -- such that when you try to go back to a person's time point "0," you really can only go back to when a person acquires that yeitzer, at which time a storehouse of past actions, experiences, etc. already exists -- isn't this discussion inexorably altered?<br>
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All the best from<br>
-- Michael Poppers via RIM pager</body></html>