First I would like to thank you for the work that you do, especially the books that you have written from Rabbi Miller’s lectures etc.
I enjoy them immensely and gain much knowledge and inspiration from them.
I was wondering if you could help me with a source. I heard a snippet of a drosho of Rabbi Miller concerning Tefilla on a Jewish radio station. Rabbi Miller said that it is a mistake to think that when you daven to Hashem for something and you are answered you should not think that your Tefilla caused Hashem to “change His mind.” Rather Hashem had known in advance that you would daven…
This was a drisoho related to Chanukka and I was unable to hear the rest and I was left with some doubts about what he meant.
I have your sefer on Rabbi Miller on Tefilla and was wondering if there is anything there that mentions this. (Alternatively perhaps you remember which tape this was on.)
I would greatly appreciate any information about this that you may have.
Thank you and much Hatzlacha in all your work.
RESPONSE:
Thanks for writing, and I appreciate your kind words.
I don’t recall the specific shiur you heard, so I can’t identify that exact tape at this moment, but the idea you’re describing is very much a concept Rav Miller spoke about, especially in connection with Rosh Hashanah and tefillah. Rav Miller explains that although a person’s year is set on Rosh Hashanah — parnassah, health, and other major areas of life — Hashem built the system so that human free will is part of the plan. If a person has a year of health decreed for him but then decides to bang his head against a brick wall this can override the decree of health. And the same on a communal level. There are things that look like decrees, yet the system already includes the possibility that they can change through sincere tefillah or teshuvah. This is the well-known Gemara in Rosh Hashanah about Hashem “tearing up” a decree, and I included Rav Miller’s discussion of this Gemara in the back of the book on “Rav Avigdor Miller on Teshuvah and Yamim Nora’im.”
At the same time, Rav Miller was very clear that this does not mean everything is subject to change. There are principles that are inviolable — the Yud Gimel Ikrim of the Rambam. Hashem does not change His mind about the fundamentals of existence, the Torah, or His promises to Klal Yisrael. He did not say that Bnei Yisrael is eternal and later decide otherwise, or give a different Torah.
So the distinction is this: within the framework of Hashem’s plan, there are areas where outcomes can change in response to human action, and that possibility was built in from the beginning. But the foundations themselves do not change.
If I come across the specific source you heard, I’ll be happy to let you know.
Kol tuv,
Yaakov Astor
Get new articles by email.
Leave a Reply