Komentarz do Pirke Awot 3:15

ALL IS SEEN. The mishna is referring to the entire world, both Jews and gentiles, which is why at the end it speaks of “the world,” which also refers to everybody. For this reason the mishna does not open with the words “he used to say,” as it is a direct continuation of the preceding mishna, in which “beloved is man, etc.” was said of all the nations of the world in order to instruct them and draw them to the commandments they were commanded in, as I wrote above. Our mishna now proceeds to call on all people, Jew and gentile, and warn them that “all is seen… and the world is judged well.”

Everything is foreseen: As it is written (Psalms 139:1-2), "Lord, You have examined me and know. When I sit down or stand up You know it; You discern my thoughts from afar, etc."

This statement includes great things and [so] it is fitting that this statement would be of Rabbi Akiva. And this is its explanation in brief on condition that you know all that came before it in the earlier chapters. He said [that] all that is in the world is known to Him, may He be blessed and He comprehends it. And that is his saying, "Everything is foreseen." And afterwards he said [that] you should not think that in His knowing actions [in the future], it is obligated by necessity - meaning to say that a person is forced in his actions to [do one] action out of the [many] actions. The matter is not like this, but [rather] freewill is in the hand of a man as to what he will do. And this is his saying, "and freewill is given." He means to say that freewill is given to every man, as we elucidated in the eighth chapter (Eight Chapters 8). And he said that the judgement of God, may He be blessed, with people, however, is with kindness and good - not according to the judgement that befits them, as He, may He be blessed, explained (Exodus 34:6), "of great patience and much kindness and truth" - and the rabbis, may their memory be blessed, said "'of great patience' with the righteous and the evil." And the prophet (recounter) said (Psalms 145:9), "Good to all is the Lord." And afterwards he said that the virtues do not come to a man according to the quantity of the greatness of the deed, but rather according to the great number of good deeds. And this is that indeed the virtues arrive by repetition of the good deeds many times. And with this does a strong acquisition come - not when a man does one great deed from the good deeds; as from this alone, a strong acquisition will not come to him. And the parable with this is that when a man gives a thousand gold coins at one time to one man to whom it is fitting and he does not give anything to another man; the trait of generosity will not come into his hand with this great act, as [much as] it will come to one who donates a thousand gold pieces a thousand times and gives each one of them out of generosity. [This is] because this one repeated the act of generosity a thousand times and a strong acquisition of it came to him [in this way]. But [the other] only aroused his soul with a great arousal towards a good act, and afterwards it ceased from him. And so [too] with Torah, the reward of the one who redeems one captive with a hundred dinar or [gives] charity to a poor person with a hundred dinar which is enough for what he lacks is not like the one who redeems ten captives or fills the lack of ten poor people - each one with ten dinar. And in this comparison and this matter is that which he said, " in accordance to the majority of the deed" - and not in accordance to the greatness of the deed.

As the knowledge of God, may He be blessed, is not like our knowledge. And even though we call it knowledge like we say about our [own] knowledge, this is only [by way of] a total juxtaposition [of similar ideas under one name]. And just like we do not have the power to know the truth of His existence, may He be blessed, etc., so [too] do we not have the power to grasp and find His knowledge, as He and His knowledge are one; not like man, as he and his knowledge are two [separate things]. And Rabbi M. Almoshnino wrote that the opinion of Rambam is like the opinion that was written by Midrash Shmuel, and this is [Midrash Shmuel's] language: it is not an objection to begin with, as the knowledge of God, may He be blessed, is like [one who] observes and gazes at an action that a man does. And behold, a man's seeing of someone else's action does not force that action. So [too], the observation of human action by God, may He be blessed, does not force it. And His knowledge, may He be blessed, of the future is for Him knowledge of the present; as in front of Him there is no before and after, since He is not [beholden to] the laws of time. To here [are his words]. And this is the distinction between His knowledge and our knowledge; that His knowledge is always in the present, even that which is in the future in our terms. It is just that we do not have the power to grasp it and understand it, etc. And see Tosafot Yom Tov, who wrote at length about this.

"Everything is foreseen": Everything that a man does in the innermost rooms is revealed in front of Him.

Everything is foreseen yet freedom of choice is granted,
And the world is judged with goodness;
And everything is in accordance with the preponderance of works.
This is another statement by Rabbi Akiva. Note how in this extremely short mishnah, Rabbi Akiva succeeds in teaching some of the most basic theological principles of Judaism. It is testimony not only to the depth of Rabbi Akiva in particular and the Mishnah in general, but to their poetic abilities as well.
Everything is foreseen yet freedom of choice is granted: this is one of the most deliciously paradoxical statement of the rabbis. It captures in just four (Hebrew) words, much of the spirit of Jewish thought. Since God is all-powerful, God must know everything, including the future. However, our actions were totally due to fate, we would not be morally responsible for our actions. In order to hold ourselves responsible for what we do, we must assume that we have free choice. Judaism is therefore a religion based on these two beliefs: God is the all-powerful, master of the universe and yet human beings have moral responsibility.
And the world is judged with goodness: this is a follow-up statement to the previous one. The freedom of choice granted to human beings is in some senses frightening. If human beings have choice then they are responsible for their choices, and at the end of the day, most of us don’t stack up to what we should be. Therefore Rabbi Akiva assures us that God judges with goodness, meaning mercifully. He allows repentance to remedy our submissions to the evil inclination.
And everything is in accordance with the preponderance of works: a person is judged based on the majority of that person’s actions. This may also relate to the previous statement. Although God judges mercifully, one should not think that one’s performance of the commandments are not of consequence. God judges a person not based on any single deed, but on a character that has been built up throughout his lifetime. People who have built up a lifetime of good deeds will be justly rewarded.
Another interpretation of this last statement is that it does not have to do with God’s judgement. Rather it teaches that a person’s character is developed throughout his lifetime by the performance of works. For example, one charitable gift does not make a person have a charitable nature. However, a person who gives frequently will be described and act as a generally charitable person. Note that in Judaism a person is mostly judged based on his actions; he is what he does. While belief is important, it is not the essential aspect of a person’s character. Furthermore, character is shaped through action.

ALL IS SEEN, AND PERMISSION IS GIVEN. Rav in the name of Rambam: “all is seen”—all of a person’s deeds, what he has done and what he will do, are known to Him. And say not that since G-d knows all that a person will do he is forced to do everything he does, whether for good or for evil, because “permission is given.” For G-d’s knowledge is not like ours, and although we use the same word to speak of His “knowledge” and our knowledge it is nothing more than a borrowed term. Just as we are unable to know the true nature of His existence, as the verse says, “Can you achieve an understanding of God? Can you fathom the extent of the Almighty?” (Job 11:7), we are unable to understand the nature of His knowledge. For He and His knowledge are one, unlike man and his knowledge, which are two separate things. This is what the prophet means when he says “for my thoughts are not your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8)—these are the words of Rambam at the end of the eight chapters that he appended as an introduction to this tractate. They are repeated in Mishne Torah, in the fifth chapter of Hilchot T’shuva, and appear yet again in the Guide for the Perplexed, 3:20, where he writes about this at length.
[*Ra’avad writes in a gloss on Hilchot T’shuva 5:5: this author has not followed the ways of the wise, for a person should not begin a thing he does not know how to complete. He began with questions and difficulties, left the difficulties unanswered, and advised the reader to just go back to faith; it were better to leave the matter simple for the simple people and not to draw their attention to this and leave them in doubt. For they might later think heretical thoughts about this. I say that he has, in fact, followed the ways of the wise, the wise being the Sages, who said just the kind of incomplete things that Ra’avad criticized Rambam for. For the mishna in Chagiga 2:1 plainly says as much: anyone who looks into these four things would be better off not having come into this world: what is above, what is below, what is in front, and what is behind. I see no difference between the words of the tannaitic sage and the words of Rambam. For when the tanna says that such a person “would be better off not having come into this world” he is forbidding him to look into and research these things. Why would he do this? Hasn’t he made people aware of this issue? By Ra’avad’s reasoning he should’ve remained silent lest people think heretical thoughts. Should one deflect and say that this is actually what the tanna’s words mean, i.e. that he shouldn’t think heretical thoughts, one can similarly deflect and say that this is what Rambam meant, for he has told us that we cannot understand this and we therefore should not think of it as we will not gain understanding.
I say that in saying “all is seen and permission given” our tanna means to say that both things are true, as Rambam writes in his commentary. Now it would seem that the tanna should’ve reversed the order and said “permission is given and all is seen,” i.e. “permission”, which is free will, is given to man, and no action goes unaccounted for because it is seen and known to Him and He will reward and punish. For free will is the foundation of the entire Torah, and because of our free will G-d’s knowledge of our actions will then lead to reward or punishment. But there seems to be no logic in first saying that “all is seen,” for what difference does it make to us that “all is seen” if we do not yet know that “permission is given”? We must conclude, therefore, that the tanna’s intent is to bring to people’s attention that even though “all is seen,” there is no contradiction to free will, for “permission is given.” In formulating the mishna this way the tanna has brought up the issue and yet has offered no resolution, the expectation then being that one understand that there is none, as is clear from the fact that the mishna does not offer any. In any case, since we have shown that the mishna is to be understood as saying “even though all is seen, permission is given,” the tanna clearly does bring up the issue hidden in his words.
I also found a passage in Bereshit Rabbah 22:10 on Cain’s murder of Abel: R. Shimon bar Yochai said: this is difficult to say and impossible for the mouth to explain. This is like two fighters who were standing and fighting in front of the king. If the king wanted to, he could have separated them, but he did not want to separate them. One of them overcame the other and killed him, and he said, Who will seek out justice for me from the king? So too, “your brother’s blood cries out to me from the earth”. This is just like Rambam—R. Shimon bar Yochai points out that the king could have separated them, for he knew and saw that they were fighting, and does not answer why it is that he didn’t separate them, noting only that “this is difficult to say and impossible for the mouth to explain”; even so, the sage, the G-dly tanna R. Shimon bar Yochai, did not hold back from bringing up the issue.
As for why R. Shimon bar Yochai did not say this about the earlier sin of Adam, it might be because the story of Cain and Abel hints to the notion of free will. For they correspond to the two drives on which free will hinges: the drive for good and the drive for evil, as Rambam writes in the Guide for the Perplexed, 2:30.
The overall point is that Rambam spoke well and followed the ways of the wise and perfect, the G-dly tannaim.]
Midrash Shmuel writes that there is no difficulty to begin with, because G-d’s knowledge is like that of one who looks and observes the deed a person does. One person simply seeing what another is doing does not force the other person to do so, and G-d seeing a person’s deeds does not force him to do them. And there are no grounds to object that since He knows what a person will do, the person must be forced to do those things, because for G-d there is no before and after, as He does not exist in time. He writes that R. Moshe Almosnino writes that this is the opinion of Rambam himself. When he distinguishes between G-d’s knowledge and our knowledge he means this distinction: His knowledge is always in the present, as there is no future in relation to Him, and just as our knowledge of the present does not force anything to happen in the present, His constant knowledge of the present does not force anything to happen in the present. People are confused on this point because they cannot imagine how He could constantly know in the present even things that are, in relation to us, in the future. Rambam therefore establishes that His knowledge is not like our knowledge, and we should not err this way. This is also why the mishna says “everything is seen,” i.e. already known, for everything is revealed before Him and He does not look into the future.
[You should know Midrash Shmuel’s opinion that G-d knows things as one who observes the deeds that a person does is the answer given by the Ra’avad in the gloss quoted earlier, where he says that G-d’s knowledge is like the knowledge of the astrologers, etc. The gloss ends, however, with “and all this does not satisfy me.” You should further know that the Ra’avad was likewise preceded in this opinion by R. Sa`adiah Gaon in his book Emunot VeDe`ot, in the fourth treatise, where he writes something very similar. That will do for now.]
Maharal writes in Derech Chaim that the mishna says “is seen” instead of “sees” because even evil things that G-d does not desire are also seen. Saying “sees” would imply that He wishes to see them, and conerning evil things the verse says “and you cannot look upon wrongdoing” (Habakkuk 1:13).

and freewill is given: As He gave into the hand of people to do all that his heart desires - whether good or whether bad; as it is stated (Deuteronomy 30:15), "See, I set before you, etc." And Rambam, may his memory be blessed, said that this thing is from the wonders: That even though freewill is given to man to do his will, the Holy One, blessed be He, knows what he will want to do before the thought and before the action. And not by force will a man do the good or the bad, but rather from the will of his [own] heart. And God, may He be blessed, knows at the beginning that which will be his will - and even those things that are weighed out and it is possible that they will be and possible that they will not be. He knows everything at the beginning of the deed, and it is a wonder.

[Rabbi Bartenura's citation] is not found to be like his words in the Commentary of Rambam. But rather this is his language: "And he says that the judgement of God, may He be blessed, is truly with kindness and with goodness, not according to the judgement that befits them, as He elucidated, may He be blessed, about His ways. And He said, "Slow to anger to the righteous and to the wicked." And the psalmist said, "God is good to all."

"and freewill is given": into the hand of man to do good and evil, as it is written (Deuteronomy 30:15), : "See, I have given in front of you today life, etc."

AND THE WORLD IS JUDGED WELL [Heb. b’tov]. Rav writes in the name of Rambam: since the case is that “permission is given,” “the world is judged well”, etc. Although this is a good explanation, it is not found in our editions of Rambam’s commentary, which has the following: the mishna then says that G-d judges people with kindness and goodness, not accoding to what they truly deserve in judgment. He clarified His ways in this in saying “slow to anger” (Exodus 34:6), which the Talmud (Bava Kamma 50b) explains as applying to both the righteous and the wicked. And the poetic prophet says “G-d is good to all” (Psalms 145:9).

and with goodness the world is judged: And the Holy One, blessed be He, does not judge man only according to his deeds - rather [also] with His Goodness and His trait of kindness. And this is what David said (Psalms 25:7), "Be not mindful of my youthful sins and my transgressions." Sins - whether they are accidental or volitional - are what a man does in his youth, when his impulse impels him and his intellect is weak. However those that he does after he has grown in years and his intellect is complete are called transgressions or rebellion. And because of this, he confessed and said, "Both the sins of my youth and the transgressions from after I grew up, 'do not remember'; and so [too] let my memory go up in front of You, remember me for the good. 'But in keeping with Your kindness, You remember me - as befits Your goodness, Lord.'" As the world is judged with kindness, and even evildoers are judged with His goodness, as it is stated (Psalms 145:9), "Good is the Lord to all [and His mercies are to all of His creatures]." And the evildoers are included in His creatures - of the Holy One, blessed be He - as it is [found] in the midrash.

See Tosafot Yom Tov, who writes at length about this, and concludes and these are his words: And you should know that there is, nevertheless, retribution for a man according to his deeds. As "anyone who says that the Holy One, blessed be He, is foregoing, his innards become foregone." It is just that He is slow to anger and He judges the world with goodness, so that it not be lost and gone. And He collects what is His at times that are known to Him, may His perpetual awareness be blessed.

"and with goodness the world is judged": with the attribute of mercy. And nonetheless, not everyone is equal in this trait, since, "all is in accordance to the majority of the deed:" One who does many good deeds is given much mercy, and one who does few good deeds is given a little mercy. A different explanation: "all is in accordance to the majority of the deed" - according to the majority of a person's deeds is he judged, if the majority are merits, he is exonerated; if the majority are sins, he is liable. And Rambam explained, "Everything is foreseen": Every action of people - that which he has done and that which he will do in the future - is revealed in front of Him. And do not say, "Since the Holy One, blessed be He, knows what a person will do - if so, he is compelled in his actions to be righteous or evil." As "freewill is given" into his hand to do good and evil and there is nothing there that compels him at all. And since this is so, "with goodness (or properly) the world is judged," to collect [punishment] from the evildoers and to give a good reward to the righteous ones. As since the sinner sinned willingly, it is fitting that he be punished; and since the righteous one was willingly righteous, it is fitting that he receive a reward.

AND EVERYTHING GOES BY THE MAJORITY OF DEEDS [or HOW NUMEROUS THE DEEDS ARE, Heb. l’fi rov hama`aseh]. Rav, in his “alternate explanation” above, writes that a person is judged according to the majority of his deeds. Cf. my comments on Kiddushin 1:10 (s.v. vechol she’eino).
Rav writes in the name of Rambam: a person who constantly does numerous good deeds will get great reward… Rambam’s text of the mishna is “and everything goes by how numerous the deeds are [Heb. l’fi rov hama`aseh¹²¹The Hebrew rov can be read either as “majority” or “numerousness”.], but not by the deed.” But I do not know where he got this from, as this is not evident from Rambam’s commentary here, which reads: the mishna says that one acquires good character traits not through one great deed but through a large number of deeds… and the same is true of the reward for performing the Torah’s commandments… based on this, the mishna uses the language l’fi rov hama`aseh [by how numerous the deeds are], but not l’fi godel hama`aseh [by how great the deed is]. He is simply explaining why the mishna uses rov instead of godel. And Midrash Shmuel, who also writes that the text quoted by Rav was Rambam’s text, is not giving his own testimony but is testifying based on the testimony of a previous witness, as he takes his words from Rav even though he does not cite him by name.
I also saw that Midrash Shmuel writes in the name of R. Moshe Alashkar that some versions have “and the world is judged with goodness but not by the majority of deeds.” He goes on to explain that the world is judged with goodness, with the attributes of kindness and mercy, but not by the majority of people’s deeds, for if He would look at the majority of deeds the world would be destroyed and cease to exist.
You should know that even so, a person is given the just deserts of all his deeds, for “if one says that G-d lets things go, his innards will be let go” [Bava Kamma 50a]. G-d judges the world with goodness in order that it not be destroyed and cease to exist, and “collects what is owed” at the points that He, whose memory is eternal, determines. Cf. my comments on Kiddushin 1:10 (s.v. metivin).

And all is in accordance to the majority of the deed: And even though the world is judged with the 'good of the Lord,' not every person is [equal] with [God's] trait of good. As for one who does much kindliness, the trait of kindness is much more than his deeds, and for the one who does little, it is little [more]. And [if] all are judged with His goodness, [yet] the good beyond the deeds of the evildoers is not as much as for the righteous; and also the righteous who do much and [those] who do a little are not the same, as "all is in accordance to the majority of the deed." And it is like it is said in the midrash (Vayikra Rabba 17:1), "'The Lord is good to those who hope in Him, to the soul that seeks Him' (Lamentations 3:25) - the one who hopes and is busy [with it] is not similar to the one who hopes and is not busy." And our teacher Moshe (Rambam), may his memory be blessed, followed the textual variant, "but not according to the deed." And he explained that all is according to the majority (quantity) of the deed. As in the matter of charity, one who gives a thousand zuz over a thousand times, that is according to the quantity of the deed; but "not according to the deed" - that is is the one gives it [all] at once. As this one arouses his thought a thousand times to do good among his people, and that one only aroused [it] the first time.

"all is in accordance to the majority of the deed": According to what a person repeats and is constant in the doing of good, his reward will be multiplied. As one who distributes a hundred gold coins to charity [giving out one coin at a time] is not similar to one who gives them out [all] at one time. And the textual variant of Rambam is, "all is in accordance to the majority of the deed"; and not "as per the deed."