The fifth chapter of the רמב”ם/Rambam’s laws of repentance, found in the משנה תורה/Mishneh Torah, opens with a profoundly necessary statement of reality: “permission is given to every person: if he wants to incline himself to the good path and be righteous – it is within his domain. And if he wants to incline himself to the bad path and be bad – it is within his domain.” The רמב”ם offers support for this from the תורה/Torah and the story of the creation of the world. Eating from the tree of knowledge of good and bad made humans unique in the world. As humans, we have the ability to make choices regarding our actions and can discern if they’re good or bad. All other creations act on animal instinct and don’t decide to do things because they are good or bad – humans alone have that ability. The רמב”ם goes on to make an even more powerful assertion in the second law of the fifth chapter: “Do not let it pass your thoughts this thing held by the fools of the nations and the undeveloped amongst the Jews that God decrees when a person is formed if the person will be righteous or wicked. This is not right, rather every single person is fit to be righteous or wicked, merciful or cruel… nobody (God included) compels a person to be anything but rather the person chooses which path they want to go on.”
There is a lot contained in that passage. The רמב”ם, with these key sentences, has just gone to battle with predetermination, destiny and so much more. What he’s doing most importantly is doing away with anyone’s ability to say they’re not responsible. We all bear responsibility for our actions, be they good or bad. We all must accept that we’re the ones making our choices and we’re the ones achieving or failing. At home, Galit will sometimes tell us that her legs made her do something wrong or made her say something. What does she mean by this? In her six-year-old language, she’s trying to assert a powerlessness she had in whatever happened. “The legs acted on their own.” But the legs didn’t and our actions and words don’t act on their own either. Each of us must step forward to accept that we’re responsible for good and bad. Each of us must make the hard decision to acknowledge that God made us with free will, and free will sometimes means we do things we’re not proud of. This also means each of us is constantly engaged in the hard process of determining which path is the right one to walk down. We’re constantly confronted with choices to make. We make those choices the best we can, and hope they’re the right ones.
In a world where we all too often feel powerless, it’s nice to know we can reclaim our power. In a world where we’re all too often led astray by external forces, it’s nice to know we have the power within ourselves to choose, to move away from those forces. In a world plagued by people who choose to do bad things, it’s nice to know we live in a world where the possibility and opportunity to repent and do תשובה/Teshuvah/Return exists so we change our ways in the future.
