JANUARY 18 • 2024 | 37
J
N

MAZEL TOV!

Carle-Milan
D

r. Catherine Carle and
Mr. Jordan Milan were
married on Nov. 18,
2023, at the Daxton Hotel in
Birmingham, Mich. Rabbi Marla
Hornsten of Temple Israel offi-
ciated.
The bride is the daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Carle of
Gatineau, Quebec. The groom
is the son of Dr. and Mrs.
Mitchell Milan of Birmingham.
The couple will reside in
Florida.

Chait 50th

Janower 50th

D

ianne and Steve Chait
of West Bloomfield are
excited to announce
that they celebrated their 50th
wedding anniversary on Jan.
13, 2024, with friends and
family. They are the extremely
proud parents of son Michael
B. Chait.

R

ena and Marty Janower
of West Bloomfield
celebrated their 50th
anniversary on Dec. 23, 2023.
They lovingly chose to cele-
brate this simchah in Cancun,
Mexico, with their children,
Andrea and Dan Monkman,
Nicole and David Goldman,
Adam Janower and Morgan
Princing, along with their
grandchildren, Shayna and
Addison Monkman, and Sadie,
Elliott and Parker Goldman.

SPIRIT
TORAH PORTION
Always a Choice
A

s humans, we are free
to act according to
our own wills. This
principle is central to Judaism
— when we strive to perform
mitzvot, this ensures we are lia-
ble when we fall short.
Some even interpret
free will as the aspect
of the Divine ascribed
to humans as btzelem
Elohim or “in the image
of God.”
But the concept of
free will is challenging to
reconcile with a theology
built on an omnipotent
and omniscient divinity:
How can we have any
choice when God knows
what we are going to do?
This contradiction is expressed
in the words of Pirkei Avot:
“Everything is foreseen yet free-
dom of choice is granted, and
the world is judged with good-
ness” (3:15).
In Parshat Bo, the plight
of the Israelites depends not
on their own free will, but on
Pharaoh’s choices. Plagues con-
tinue to rain down on Egypt;
yet the throne refuses to release
the captive task force. It seems
like Pharaoh is stubbornly
shortsighted and unable to act
in the best interest of his sub-
jects who bear the brunt of the
discomfort of each plague. But
a repeated refrain in recent par-
shayot reveals that Pharaoh is
not necessarily refusing to lib-
erate them of his own free will.
First at the Burning Bush
and again throughout the Ten
Plagues narrative (Exodus 7:3;
11:1; 9), God tells Moses that
Pharaoh’s heart will be hard-
ened, thus reducing his capacity
for empathy and obstructing his
choice to release the Israelites.
Why is Pharaoh’s heart hard-
ened against potentially better

judgment? Some sages suggest
it was necessary. Sforno says
Pharaoh needed to endure the
plagues to fully recognize the
power of God; otherwise, he
would have freed the Israelites
simply to avoid further discom-
fort. Maimonides adds
that the path of teshuvah
was not open to Pharaoh,
given the gravity of his
sins.
Perhaps focusing on
Pharaoh at all is more
benefit than deserved.
The continuation of the
plagues was not only
punishment for Egypt,
but also a demonstration
of God’s power to the
Israelite nation, genera-
tions removed from the mira-
cles of Genesis.
But this would imply the
Israelites ventured forth out of
fear rather than faith in God,
detracting from their own per-
ceived free will. From this we
can conclude that the “mixed
multitude” (Exodus12:38) who
departed from Egypt after
Pharaoh finally capitulates fol-
lowing the 10th plague includ-
ed Israelites and Egyptians,
while others remained behind
freely.
In this episode, as in our
modern lives, we see the inte-
gral role of God’s providence,
but action depends on human
choices. Like Pharaoh, our
hearts can be hardened against
better judgment; it is our free
will to give in to these obstacles
or strive toward something
more.

Rabbi Benjamin Altshuler is

a community rabbi residing in

West Bloomfield. He has served

congregations throughout the Midwest

and is an alumnus of Avodah: the

Jewish Service Corps, for which he now

serves on the Rabbinic Council.

Rabbi

Benjamin

Altshuler

Parshat

Bo: Exodus

10:1-13:16;

Jeremiah

46:13-28.