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.