Pensamento Judaico sobre Provérbios 30:6

The opening parable in the Sifri that we quoted at the beginning of this chapter poses the problem we have been discussing. By granting man freedom of will, G'd, fatherlike, hands over the prince to the pedagogue. The pedagogue can be viewed as the "wings" i.e. the forces subservient to the Lord acting as His administrators in the universe. The son, i.e. Israel enjoying his freedom, felt, that by giving the administrator what he wanted, he could be completely undisturbed by him and free to pursue his own designs without interference. In the end, when found corrupt, Israel tried to blame G'd for its own corruption accusing Him of having turned it over to a pedagogue who appeared to possess independent powers. If the pedagogue did not have independent powers Israel argued, what had been the point of being entrusted to him? If as a result of being placed in the care of a pedagogue, G'ds attitude vis a vis Israel underwent a change, it was not Israel that was to blame! To forestall such reasoning on the part of Israel, Moses calls on Heaven and Earth as witnesses to the constancy of G'ds purpose, and both Psalms and the prophet Maleachi tell us that He has never changed. When Moses predicts the behaviour of the Jewish people after his death, he does so on the basis of his psychological insight of the character of his people, not on the basis of prophetic knowledge. Just as this psychological insight does not commit the people to act in a certain way, so G'ds psychological insight into the nature of the people in no way encroaches on their exercising their free will. The fact that even Moses, a mere human being, could foretell with such uncanny accuracy future behaviour of the Jewish people, is the most vivid testimony of G'd the master psychologist's foreknowledge of the actions of Israel, or anybody else's actions for that matter.