Navigating Life's Choices: Embracing Free Will and Moral Autonomy with Rav Dessler's Wisdom

Show Notes
Transcript

What truly steers the ship of our lives: fate or free will? Get ready to explore this philosophical quandary with Rav Dessler, whose insights on autonomy and moral choices promise to illuminate the unseen corners of our everyday decision-making. From selecting a salad over a schnitzel to engaging with ancient wisdom instead of fleeting entertainment, we discuss the impacts of seemingly trivial choices on life's grand tapestry. Rav Dessler's perspectives serve as a beacon, guiding us through the fog of the 'gray areas' where our true power to choose lies.

We confront our deepest selves as we navigate the ethical battleground where the black-and-white extremes blur into shades of gray. Each decision, be it mundane or monumental, is a ripple in the pond of our character, shaping the narrative of our existence. Rav Dessler challenges us to locate our nekudes habechira—the precise point of balanced free will—and to use it as a lever to tip the scales toward righteousness. By recognizing these moments, we become the architects of our destiny, inch by inch, choice by choice, always striving to choose life. Join us on this invigorating journey and discover how to embrace your moments of authentic free will.

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Transcript

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You have been born onto this planet with a very singular goal in mind.

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You are to do one thing, and one thing only, and that is to choose good in your free will that you have as a human pick salad over schnitzel.

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Choose to peruse the Talmud before maybe reading a nonsense filled novel.

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Choose to stay home and cook your elderly parents supper before running out to party.

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Bechar to bechayim is something that only human beings have the ability to choose to do the right thing.

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Now Rivdesler has a world renowned insight as to what it is to have free will and it's very apropos for the conversation.

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There are a lot of decisions that are out of our free will.

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Gray area life, for there is the dark area, the black side of things, which is don't kill.

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It's just frankly out of the question.

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It's easy.

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You don't struggle with not killing.

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You choose to not kill, you just don't.

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Maybe Al Capone would struggle if he would become a righteous convert with that, but not for the average Joe Shmo.

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And on the other side, the white side, you'll have things that are well out of our nekudes habichir because they're just too great of a struggle.

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Want to stay up the whole night learning, two nights of Shavua, studying, and now you're asked to pray with concentration and devotion while you are so absolutely exhausted it may seem too far out of your nekudes.

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Habichir Rivdesler shows us that every person's free will, there's a sniper like bullet, one perfectly weighed spot where you have total free will, a 50-50 chance that you get to say yes or you get to say no, and that's where life happens.

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Or when you choose good over evil.

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You have now pushed the enemy forces back.

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A martial is like a war, he says, where there's bad attacking good, but the battle actually only happens of life at the very forefront, the battleground, when you push them back.

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You choose salad over schnitzel, or you choose a steak over dairy, the better one.

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You're now moving that meter, a slight step forward, and you have now broadened your horizons and pushed that little gray area in towards the good side.

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And now, tomorrow, you begin from a further spot.

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As you have pushed the enemy forces back, uba khar to b'chaim want you to recognize where his freedom of choice, where his spots of true free will actually lie.

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And on those battlefields you choose to fight and you choose to push the enemy back, moving your free will to the side of good.

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Uba khar to b'chaim, and thou shall always choose life.

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