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From: rhendel@mcs.drexel.edu (Russell Hendel)
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 13:13:34 -0500
Subject: RE: Is Free Will Limited

Eli Frankel, V25n51, cites authorities who suggest that free will may be
limited. Eli further points out that real Teshuva requires a total
personality transformation and cannot e.g. be done overnight.I first
quote a talmudic story of instantaneous repentance of a mass murderer. I
then cite 2 sources answering Eli's question: "But how could he
transform in an instant?"

THE STORY: The Talmud explicitly relates that when Jerusalem was
captured one of the generals discovered the blood of Zecharyahu ben Ido
who had been murdered in the Temple while rebuking the people.  The
blood could not be swept away and the general started slaughtering
thousands of Jews to appease it. When this didn't work the general
asked:"Zecharyahu I have killed the choicest of them do you want me to
kill all of them", at which point the blood went away. The general in
turn was shocked that one life could mean so much.  He said to himself:
If this one murder required so much to atone for it what will happen to
me who has killed many thousands of people?". He repented and converted
and several great talmudic scholars came from him.

A PHILOSOPHICAL ANSWER: First, the question of the justice that one
person can repent at the end of his life and achieve the next world
while others must toil their whole life to achieve it was dealt with in
a beautiful article in BOR HATORAH by Dr. Schlessinger.

Secondly, a direct answer to Eli's question is provided by Rav Hirsch
who comments on the talmudic story of a person who sinned with every
prostitute he heard about until one day upon seeing his Tzitzith while
undressing he remembered the message of "leaving Egypt" and
repented. Rav Hirsch explains that this person put on Tztitzith 365
times a year and probably never thought of their symbolic or spiritual
meaning. Nevertheless at the right moment these acts bubbled to the
surface of his consciousness and saved him.

This then is the answer to Eli's question: "Teshuva requires alot of
work--how could he repent in the instant?"The answer is:"He had been
putting on Tzitzith all these years and without knowing it this activity
formed the basis for his Teshuva." In summary we never know with any
person how suddently the varied acts of their life will reorganize and
bubble to the surface.

Russell Jay Hendel, Ph.d, ASA, rhendel @ mcs drexel edu