700.10 NECESSITY AND FREEDOM (p.109)

hard cover page 109

In order for manto reach his full potential, he must operate from a base of freedom. (This is a law of the universe in concert with balance of dynamics of Tree of Knowledge chosen at Eden.)⁴³⁴

The God of the Ten Commandments is the God of Freedom.

I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
-First Commandment (Exodus 20:2, Deuteronomy 5:6)

The Divine introduction is clear: Not the God of Creation;⁴³⁵ not the God of Power; but the God of Freedom. Freedom as a base for the commandments, and as a base for the ultimate attainment of spiritual redemption.

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⁴³⁴ See Berkovits on Buber in Major Themes in Modern Philosophies of Judaism, pp. 75-76. “The dialogue, the human responsibility to respond to the Voice presupposes freedom. Without freedom man could render no answer; without freedom there can be no relation. . .. The world of the It is indeed one of unfreedom. The man who has encountered the Thou knows of freedom. I and Thou confront each other in freedom. . . . The freedom of one’s own being, as well as that of Being, is vouchsafed in the spontaneous reciprocity of the relation. . . . Freedom and destiny embrace each other in order to reveal to man the meaning of his life.”

⁴³⁵ Ibn Ezra and Rav Yehuda Halevi (Kuzari 1: 12) both grapple with this point. See Leibowitz, Studies in Shemot, p. 308, and associated footnotes, for citations and excerpts.

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