Shocking! Philosophy vs. Kabbalah: Can Prayer Change God's Mind? Yes & No

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Hidabroot - Torah & Judaism’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

[music] The unique part about this talk is what we're going to do. We're going to bring up a philosophical question asked over the ages, but we're going to answer it from a few different perspectives. One of them, which adds a nice dimension to this talk, is going to be Kabbalah. Now, early Jewish philosophers, really not all of them learned Kabbalah because the Kabbalah became hidden. So, when we speak about Jewish philosophers, sometimes they're discussing a topic, for example, like prayer without using anything from Kabbalah. Now, later, the Kabbalah became more revealed. And so, today we can take these same discussions and contrast the way Kabbalah addresses them and standard Jewish philosophy. So, the biggest question that comes up when discussing the idea of prayer. Prayer is full of amazing ideas. We talk to God. Obviously, it implies that God listens, God cares, God can answer. A a lot of fundamental of life and Judaism really are connected directly to the concept of prayer. But a huge question that is discussed from the early Jewish philosophers is how does prayer really work? How can it work, actually, for that matter? Um you know, God is all-knowing, perfect in everything he does, sees beginning and end, beyond time, within time, everything. God is unbelievable, omnipotent. Can prayer change God's mind? So, let's imagine a particular case. God has decided to give you

Jump to a moment

1. 0:00[music] The unique part about this talk is what we're going to do. We're going to…
2. 1:31something, either positive or negative. So, can your input, can your dialogue with God alter that?…
3. 3:34recesses of your heart and your mind, there's a calling there. You're like, "I would love…
4. 5:36that God has decided for you, the way you are, who you exactly are right now,…
5. 7:06Then the Mercedes dealer drops off a car in your parking lot or the sickness goes…
6. 9:10here and there, fine. But it's not prayer that's doing it. It's chuvah. It's repentance. It's…
7. 11:11someone who's going to be let's say, you know, be wanting to decide things for me.…
8. 12:43thing. The chuva of prayer is this inner dialogue within you, this this this this analysis…
9. 14:46So, really when you think about it like this, what your life will be, what you…
10. 16:48judgment and punishment to kindness and love. And so, are we changing God's mind? So, maybe…

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