What Makes Things Happen: Luck, Chance, Fate--Or Freedom?

People consider luck, chance, fate, and freedom to be forces that bring about events. This book explores the customs associated with each of these concepts, alongside practices rooted in Judaism. Sometimes incidents seem to be the result of luck. Often no apparent reason lies behind them. Indeed, people live with uncertainty. It is also often supposed that chance causes things to occur. In modern science the world is deemed to be governed by randomness. Perhaps it is fate that makes things happen. Yet the Jewish tradition does not abide by the idea from classical Greece, which has continued until today, that one's path in life and its endpoint are predetermined by fate. Rather, in Judaism repentance is an open avenue, always. People have free will and at any moment can change their behavior for the better. In Jewish thought as well as in many modern day notions, freedom is presumed to be the "real" cause of events. With freedom, someone can choose to act, and can make things happen. The instances of climate change, democracy, and the current war that Israel faces illuminate the necessity of holding onto the belief in our freedom. People can make a difference.