בחירת האדם בשיטתו הפילוסופית של ר' אברהם ביבאגו

Rabbi Abraham Bibago (died c. 1489) was a prominent thinker in the last generation of a thriving Jewish community in Spain. In his central book, Derech Emuna (“Way of Belief”), Bibago aimed for a synthesis between moderate philosophical views and traditional Jewish belief. This article describes the position of R. Bibago on free will. The first part of the article analyzes R. Bibago’s understanding of the psychological process of choice. According to R. Bibago, freedom of will characterizes humans as opposed to animals and divine beings (such as angels). These latter have only corporal (animals) or intellectual (divine beings) capacities, while humans have both. Using free will, people can choose whether to follow their corporal or intellectual inclinations. The second part of the article describes the differences R. Bibago finds between the workings of human free will and animal will. Due to the intellectual part of the human soul, people’s fates are not predetermined by the stars. The third part of the article analyzes R. Bibago’s interpretation of the heresy of Elisha ben Abuya. According to Bibago, akrasia exists and people not only can act against their intellectual knowledge but also can change their opinions at will.