Chapter G – Choice versus destiny – everything is foreseen and the choice is given?!?

If everything is already written in the code – where is there room for choice?

"Everything can be foreseen, written and programmed – and still man has the ability to choose."

Sub-chapters: Introduction · The "Oracle" · The Architect · The Merovingian · Inanimate, vegetative, animal, speaking

Introduction

One of the central questions the trilogy touches is a question that necessarily arises from the insight that the reality of the world – of the Matrix – is an imaginary reality programmed from above.

If everything that happens in the world, in the Matrix, has already been written in the green letters – the programming language that creates the whole virtual existence we perceive – then where is there room here for choice? Are I and my choices real, or are we also only part of the illusion? The Sages put it this way: if everything is already foreseen, where is the freedom left for man to change?

The film's discussion of this question takes place on two levels:
1. The theoretical level.
2. The practical level, where, without discussion or debate, the film presents its message in action:

The film is a film of choice. All along the way, Neo chooses, fights and decides for himself at every crossroads he faces, despite the attempts of the other characters to convince him that everything is foreseen.

After his choice, and parallel to it, over the long run we see that in the end everything falls back into the original plan.

The film demonstrates wonderfully how – even though it contradicts our limited logic – it is possible that everything is foreseen, written, programmed, and still man has the possibility to choose. The whole as a union of complementary opposites.

The first hurdle that opens the conceptual struggle between "foreseen" and "choice" is the question Morpheus asks Neo: "Do you believe in fate?" Neo answers that he does not, and explains that he doesn't like the idea that he is not in control of his life. One of the important criteria of a fighter of Zion is the belief that he can change – that he has the power to influence himself and the world. It is this belief that stands by the fighter of Zion as he copes with the difficulties involved in fulfilling the personal mission given to him.

Neo will have to stand firm and even dig in for his war with the "foreseen" (the inevitable), which approaches in the form of Smith, the Oracle, the Architect and the Merovingian – only to recognize in the end that without his choices no progress would indeed have been achieved, yet truly everything from A to Z was inevitable – "foreseen." The full expression of this truth comes to light at the end of the trilogy in Neo's last words. During the last battle of the giants, Smith asks Neo why he is fighting – after all, it is clear to him that he will lose; Smith sees the foreseen end with the eyes of the Oracle that he has stolen. Neo explains to him that although the end is supposedly already known, as long as he is alive he still has the ability to choose. Immediately afterwards, surprisingly, in the last sentence, Neo closes the circle (beginning and end): out of inner strength, determination and surrender, he concedes to Smith that truly – parallel to the truth of his choices – everything really was foreseen, and then he gives up his life.

Teiku – a draw. The Talmud's acronym for an unresolved question: Tishbi (Elijah) yetaretz kushiyot ve-ba'ayot – "Elijah will answer the difficulties and questions."

The "Oracle"

With his spiritual awakening, Neo becomes acquainted with the programmed nature of the Matrix and meets the important and unique figure of the "Oracle." The relationship woven between them expresses the relationship within Neo's own soul between the side that believes he is able to change and choose, and the understanding that all his desires, thoughts and actions are foreseen and planned in advance. In their three meetings, across the three parts of the trilogy, three motifs recur that express the development of this inner connection: 1. whether Neo will stand or sit; 2. whether he will eat what she offers him; 3. whether the Oracle knows for certain what he will do and decide.

First meeting

In their first meeting, after she consoles him for breaking the vase that he has not yet broken – which makes him turn around and break it – she lands the first blow and reveals to him: "What's really going to bake your noodle later on is, would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything?" The "Oracle," very dominant and sure of herself, hints to him that she is directing his path and influencing his decisions, consciously and unconsciously. In addition, she tells him that she doesn't offer him a seat because he won't accept anyway – showing him that she is inside his thoughts. Together with Neo we take a knock-out blow to our belief that we control and decide alone, and we suddenly see that there is someone deciding together with us, pushing us and weaving our personal existence. At the same time the "Oracle" stages a fabricated examination and encourages him to say himself that he is not "the One." She informs him that in his present incarnation he is really not ready – and she creates a conflict in us, since we understand that he and only he can play this role. This conflict undermines our confidence in her and opens in us the possibility that perhaps she does not entirely know what will be; after all, we all know he is the hero of the film. The first meeting ends with her assertiveness as she hands the confused Neo the cookies, and with her even more confusing consolation that he shouldn't worry – after all, he doesn't believe in all that fate nonsense anyway.

Despite the clear victory of the "Oracle" and of the concept of the "foreseen" in this first round, a small escape hatch may still remain. The Oracle reveals to Neo the test awaiting him: sacrificing his life for Morpheus and Zion. She tells him that he will have to choose. Yes, yes – to choose. Not only does she "reveal" to him that such a concept exists; she tells him that if he does not give up his life to save Morpheus, Zion will have no chance to survive. But when the moment of the test arrives, both we and Neo become acquainted with the tremendous power of the "Oracle" and of the "foreseen" that she represents. She foresaw the approaching test, and she knew that the decision Neo would take – his "choice" – is what would make him "the One." But what knocked us off our chairs for a moment and left us open-mouthed is that she also foresaw something we could not even have taken into account. She resolved the conflict that arose in the first meeting in a charming and astonishingly simple way: Neo really does have to die in order to become "the One." She was right! At the same time as crushing the concept of "choice" (which she foresaw in advance), she crushes one of the most tangible concepts in our lives: life and death are also part of the illusion! Nothing is final, nothing is absolute; everything depends on the Supreme Will. This new reality strengthens our faith in the unshakable power of the "Oracle" and in her far-seeing vision. Meanwhile the "foreseen" leads 1:0.

Second meeting

In round two, Neo already comes from a different place. He has proven himself and become "the One." In this round Neo shows greater confidence, expressed first of all in the motif of sitting. She offers him a seat, but he dares to refuse. After a short thought he sits anyway, explaining that he felt like it. She tells him that she knew it, and in his glance we see how hard it is for him to accept this. Then two fundamental, connected questions emerge that trouble Neo: 1. "If you're part of the system, how can I trust you?" – freely translated: if you are part of the planned reality of the "foreseen," how will I know you are not contradicting my choice, the fulfillment of my destiny? Perhaps you are another form of control, of coercion. 2. If you already know whether I will take the candy or not – where is my choice? Is there still room for me to decide?

Here the "Oracle" reveals the wondrous secret to him: "You've already made the choice!" Freely translated: before you came down into the body (the digital figure), you already saw the whole path of your life, with all its crossroads and all its tests, and already above you saw what the right choice is at every crossroads and encounter. You have already chosen. Now all that remains for you to do is to remember the right choice – to understand why and how the right choice brings you closer to the Source. The one who understands – sees. Just as Trinity and Morpheus knew at the start how to foresee the future with Neo ("Knock, knock – follow the white rabbit") because they held a higher level of understanding, so the "Oracle" understands existence on an even higher level. "We're all here to do what we're all here to do" – everyone has a precise path that he is meant to carry out, with all the choices it contains. What matters is the future – and we can reach it only together: only by combining an understanding of the foreseen plan, which is built in a supra-logical way on the personal choices that compose it. Here the Oracle passes Neo the message that although everything is foreseen – freedom is granted. As a sign of agreement, Neo takes the candy. In keeping with the new balance of forces, we see a kind of weakening of the Oracle's knowledge: she tries to get information from him about his dreams – what is happening? Does Trinity die? She supposedly does not know, because it still depends on him. She explains to him that his choice is necessary to save Zion. The "foreseen" needs him – his choice matters.

Trinity's death is a central motif of the second part of the trilogy and of the question of choice – a motif that recurs several times in the film. Already in this meeting with the Oracle, Neo understands that when the time comes he will have to make a decision that will determine whether she dies or not. The "Oracle" tells him that the decision has already been made and that now he only has to understand it. Neo shakes off the Oracle's hint and insists on his freedom to avoid deciding on the death of his beloved, even perhaps at the price of losing Zion. The question of choice develops later in two more important encounters: the meeting with the Merovingian and the meeting with the Architect. The Merovingian opens a new front in the war over choice, which we will discuss in a separate sub-chapter below, but the Architect brings the main war of the film to its climax, even to an "explosion." The war in the film is over the subject of choice – a war that comes down to the decisive battle around the death of Neo's beloved, Trinity.

The Architect

The Architect – the great programmer who built the world of illusion – chose to reveal himself to Neo in the room of television screens, and not by chance. He tries to pass Neo a forceful and direct message: all the inner thoughts, the various desires arising in you, from which you "choose" the "right" Neo – all of them are programmed by me. The entire tapestry of life that makes up a person's personality is programmed from above. The Architect tells Neo about the earlier attempts at "creating" the Matrix in order to reveal to him that choice is an "invention" of the "Oracle" – part of the illusion of the Matrix whose purpose is to give credibility to the imaginary world he created, so that people will believe it and accept it.

Although at first glance his words supposedly shatter completely the reality of choice, a deeper look reveals in them a new understanding of the concept of choice. It turns out that at the foundation of a person's existence the concept of choice does exist. This need, identified by the "Oracle," if it is not satisfied, undermines for the person the credibility of the imaginary existence they are trying to sell him. It follows that there are two kinds of choice. The first is real; it flows from the Source, and from it flows the root of a person's existence. The second, the invented one, is part of the world of falsehood and tries to imitate the outward form of the real one in order to lend credibility to the world of imagination. Here the depth of the dispute becomes clear between the "Oracle," who recognizes the reality of true choice drawing from the "Source," and the Architect, who tries to convince Neo that choice is part of the rigged game of the Matrix. Zion is really a refuge for all those who did not buy the counterfeit choice of the virtual Matrix, out of an inner feeling that there is another choice – truer, purer, right! Neo embodies in his figure the sum of all the souls who refused to eat the imitation because they felt in the depths of their being that something else awaits them, something real.

At this point the great difference becomes clear between what a large part of humanity calls "choice" – which is nothing but a simple form of preference (Kinley or Cola, redhead or brunette, medicine or architecture, Maccabi or Beitar, etc.) – and the original concept of choice, which embodies the ability to actively resist one's own desires on various levels. A resistance made possible by understanding the Supreme Will and the absolute values that branch out from it. The ability to do the opposite of what I want because I understand that it is right. The willingness to give up my desires for the sake of the whole, for the sake of the general, for the sake of the "Source."

This is why, at first glance, Neo does not behave as the Architect planned. "The One" is supposed to return his code to the Source and thereby expose the basic flaw (of the counterfeit choice), and thereby express (in his collective soul) the beginning and the end of the deviation of the rebels of Zion. Neo, who succeeds in touching the deep and true point of choice, succeeds in breaking the cycle of the "foreseen" compulsion – and truly choosing. Neo slams the door on the Architect and the stronghold of the "foreseen," and does the completely unforeseen: he brings Trinity back to life after she has died in his hands. Neo has won! Choice has won!

Has it really?

– Please be seated and fasten your seat belts – we are taking off –

Without detracting from the understandings we have discovered so far, we are about to dive with the trilogy into another level of understanding the concept of choice.

Let us pay attention to the Architect's last words: "She is going to die, and there is nothing you can do to stop it." The Architect is not very moved by Neo's choice and does not see it as a victory. If we allow ourselves to jump ahead to the third part of the trilogy, we discover that in the end the Architect's "prophecy" did not prove false. Trinity and Neo knowingly set out on a mission from which they knew they would not return. Trinity really does die in the end, and Neo, as he was programmed, returns the code of his collective soul to the Source. He who laughs last laughs best. Even Neo's heroic choice in the second part was part of the "foreseen" – one more stage on the way.

Just as we saw in Chapter 2 that the more the intellect grows, the more the dimension of time shrinks, until in the greatest intellect time is nullified – so it is with choice. The more awareness grows, the more choice narrows (there is no need to choose – you know what is right), until in the Supreme Intellect there is, as it were, no choice. Why "as it were"? Because the Supreme Intellect, the divine knowledge, is the very essence of choice (Me'or Einayim, Parashat Bo). We have already said above that preferring between one set of personal desires and another does not deserve the name "choice" at all. Choice begins when a higher knowledge of what is right to do enters. It follows that knowledge is the source of choice, and without knowledge there is no room for choice. And at this point the Me'or Einayim reveals that there is no room for the question of contradiction ("if everything is foreseen, where is there room for choice?"): the "foreseen," the higher knowledge, is itself the very essence of choice!

Hard to grasp? Don't worry. This is a mental loop that cannot be grasped by human understanding. That is why Maimonides, in his answer to this question, said, "For My thoughts are not your thoughts" – it is impossible to resolve this contradiction with the human intellect. Its "processor" is too weak. For whoever wants to dive further: the world is really a "vacated space" (chalal panui). The "vacated space" is a Kabbalistic concept describing the contraction of the Creator's infinite light from a central point in order to allow the existence of a finite reality. As long as the infinite light filled all existence, a finite reality could not exist. This contraction created a space in which, as it were, there is no "infinity," no simple unity – and so there is finitude, there are opposites, and there is multiplicity. The paradox created – that "as if" the Infinite is not here, yet really everything here is only from Him – is the basis of all the paradoxes that exist in our world. These paradoxes have no "solution"; they are expressions of the basic paradox. That is why we say in prayer, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts" (utterly separate from everything that exists in the world), and immediately afterwards, "the whole earth is full of His glory" (everything we see is He). The question of knowledge and choice is one of the questions stemming from this basic paradox (the vacated space), like other loop questions such as: "Can He create a stone that He cannot lift?"

The film describes the truth in an astonishing way – everything is foreseen, and still there is choice. The intellect cannot reconcile this, but the limitation of the intellect does not detract from the fact that the truth exists.

The Merovingian

The meeting with the Merovingian is, at its root, an expression of one of the methods of oppression used by the agents of the Matrix in the world. The outlook that emerges from the Merovingian's words is that all of a person's actions are the result of external stimuli. Man is a victim of causality. Inside each person there are forces embedded in him which, when the right stimulus arrives, will simply leap out without his being able to control them. He really has no choice. And therefore, at the deepest level, he has no responsibility and is not to blame. He is compelled by the forces acting in him. This is the teaching of Freud, which is a fruit of the false doctrine of evolution and of Nietzsche's determinism. Against him Viktor Frankl protests in his book Man's Search for Meaning, saying that he disagrees with Freud not only as a colleague but as a living witness. From his experience in the concentration camps he tells that a person who entered there as an animal – the environment truly gave him the set of stimuli needed to turn him into a beast of prey. But a person who entered there as a human being – the environment gave him the platform to become an angel. According to Frankl, man is not compelled by external causality. At every crossroads he has the ability to choose to overcome the animal nature aroused by external stimuli, and to behave differently – to reveal the heavenly spiritual essence lying behind the earthly animal in him.

The Merovingian himself – the "king of causality," the "ruler" of the "why" – through his conceptual surrender to his own urges, falls victim to the forces that rule him and to causality, and loses control of the "Keymaker" to Neo and the fighters of Zion.

This, as we saw above, is the essence of the concept of choice: the ability to overcome. A man (gever) is one who knows how to overcome (le-hitgaber). A child's maturing is based on his ability to restrain himself from fulfilling only his private wishes, out of recognition of the world around him. "Who is mighty? One who conquers his inclination." Might (gevurah) is a person's ability to contract his selfhood to the point of nullification in the Infinite.

A deep look at the principle of causality reveals to us an interesting process in the human soul. All scientific research is based on the assumption that everything has a cause. Why do the leaves of the plant grow exactly this way? And why do they have hairs of this size? Why, why and why. The basic assumption that drives all the research institutes of the world is that there is a cause – there is always a "why." The interesting thing is that when a person comes to look at himself, he suddenly forgets that everything has a purpose and destiny – everything has its "why" – and he is swept into believing Smith that he himself, unlike all of creation, is without meaning and purpose, without a "why."

So we see that Smith and the Merovingian try to fool us twice. On the one hand, they try to convince us that man is a captive of external causality and has no choice at all. On the other hand, when it comes to our fundamental essence, they try to convince us to forget causality and to believe that there is no reason, no purpose and no destiny.

We must fight to remember that on the outer level we are not compelled by circumstances. We have the power to stand against the strongest forces that rise within us, through connection with the Source. The struggle against these stimuli is itself the purpose and destiny embedded in the depths of our being – the reason for our lives.

To sum up: the reason for our existence is to overcome the causality that surrounds us – and this is the ability to choose.

The whole as a union of complementary opposites.

The role of the external stimuli and tests is to give us the opportunity to discover the angel hidden within us.

Inanimate, vegetative, animal, speaking

Each level of life in the world has a different intensity of vitality, which depends on the measure of will embedded in it and which is expressed in the amount of movement it shows. Psalms: "You open Your hand and satisfy every living thing with will" (ratzon – and not with food). The greater the embedded lack (the will), the more a thing moves in order to complete its lack. The Sages teach us that although we call the vegetable and animal worlds "living," there are two kinds of life: physical life and spiritual life. True life in the spiritual sense, as we have learned, depends on the ability to overcome the natures embedded in us. Everyone agrees that inanimate things, although there is movement in them (electrons and so on), are not alive. Why? Because the movement is not voluntary – it is compelled by their nature. Self-will must be the revelation of a movement that departs from the basic nature of the observed body. If we use the same criterion to examine the higher levels, we discover a startling revelation.

Everyone is used to regarding the plant world as part of the kingdom of life. Is it really? Does it have voluntary movement? Everyone answers: of course – it grows toward the sun and sends its roots toward the water. But a simple experiment will show us that wherever we move the lamp, the plant will turn toward it and grow after it, with no possibility of any other movement. The plant is no less an automaton than the electron – it acts as its nature compels it, according to the stimuli acting on it. It has no self-will – and so it has no life (in the spiritual sense).

Animals – are they alive in the spiritual sense? Do they have self-will? Can they resist their nature? Everyone will answer: sure! Look at the dolphin, at the dog, at the ant that sacrifices its life for the whole nest. But a deeper look will show that the ant has not yet been born that, while the nest is under attack, will decide to go to the sea to do tai-chi; and the ant has not yet been born that will decide to fulfill itself and, instead of collecting food for the nest all day, sign up for a yoga class. The dog and the dolphin, too, have a nature of guarding and rescuing that looks to us very human and voluntary, but in its essence it is a compelled nature from which there is no way out. Therefore the animal kingdom, too, is not "alive" in the spiritual sense.

What about the "speaking" – man? Is he alive? Or is he too an automaton compelled to behave as his nature dictates? As we learned above, we understand that it depends whom you ask. If we ask Freud or the other agents of the "system," they will tell us that man really is compelled in his behavior: inside him there are animals of various kinds, hiding and waiting for the right stimulus to come out without the owner's control. According to this school, man too is an automaton and therefore spiritually dead. The Sages also tell us that most people in the world are really considered dead: "The wicked, in their lifetime, are called dead; and the righteous, in their death, are called living." Rasha (wicked) – an acronym of ratzon shel atzmo, "his own will." Those who chase all their lives after satisfying their own physical desires, those whose vision is narrowed to the needs embedded in them – the automatons – are, in spiritual terms, dead.

Who, then, are the living? Those who know that they came here to grow up – to overcome. To be a man (gever). "Who is mighty? One who conquers his inclination." The one who knows how to rise above his natures, above his physical needs. Most of the world thinks that "living it up" means letting loose and running wild on the physical level. Today we understand that "living" is exactly the opposite: it is being able to rise above the inner automaton that wants to react like an animal to the various stimuli around it. To be alive is to develop the spiritual muscle through actions that go beyond the nature embedded in us – to touch the point of life, the point of choice, the point of the human. Whoever neglects this muscle simply lets it atrophy, and even if he decides to try to rise above bodily existence, he will not be able to. This spiritual muscle must be trained in order to fulfill the spiritual potential hidden in us – the image of the complete human being – and the supreme, infinite satisfaction that flows from it.

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Translated from the Hebrew chapter "בחירה מול גורל" by Roni Ayalon-Hirsch.