It suggests that the very actions of the Divine will prove that Yichud, the Singularity, will eventually be revealed. How so? We see it in the prophecies themselves. These prophecies, the text argues, promise that God will redeem Israel no matter what. Even if they don't deserve it! And, even more startling, that God will remove the yetzer hara – the evil inclination – from humanity, forcing them to worship Him.
Doesn't that fly in the face of free will? And what about the whole system of reward and punishment?
If the whole point was to maintain free choice, where people are rewarded for good and punished for evil, then shouldn't that system continue forever? Shouldn't God, as the text puts it, "strengthen the character of justice, to support all of His creations forever"?
But, as Da'at Tevunot points out, drawing from our sacred sources and the teachings of our sages, that’s not what the tradition tells us. Eventually, free will, as we know it, will be removed. Negativity will vanish from the world. As it says in Berakhot 10a, "sinners shall cease from the earth.” So, if that's the endgame, then the ultimate intention can't solely be about reward and punishment.
So what's going on here?
Da'at Tevunot proposes that God has intertwined two seemingly contradictory elements into a single, unified plan. This is a profound insight, born from the depths of Divine wisdom, aimed at achieving complete rectification, or Zohar" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="source-link">tikkun.
Think of it like this: maybe the journey through free will, with all its messy choices and consequences, is actually a necessary stage in reaching a state of universal good. Maybe the struggles we face, the temptations we resist (or succumb to), are all part of a grand design that ultimately leads to a world without negativity.
The text promises to delve deeper into this concept later, when it explores the details of God's behavior. It acknowledges that this is a profound and fundamental matter, one that touches on the very essence of our existence. And honestly, isn't that the kind of question that keeps us coming back to these ancient texts? The kind that reminds us that the search for meaning is a journey, not a destination? The kind that makes you wonder, what does it really mean to be free?