G_d is the cosmic chess grandmaster

Can we have free will and still be destined to reach a certain point in life, regardless of having the power to choose our path? I believe so. G_d gives us free will, yet we’re still bound by G_d’s plan for us. It’s G_d’s grand game of cosmic chess where free will and destiny interlink as G_d’s plan for each of us.

How can we have free will, then? Well, that’s one of those ”Lord works in mysterious ways” moments. It sounds like one of those ”don’t blaspheme” and ”have faith” explanations but our minds can’t grasp the paradox of having free will, yet still be destined to walk the path of G_d’s plan for us. With so much evil in the world, the matter becomes curiously complex.

There are God’s Chosen, correct? Then it stands to reason there are God’s cursed. One can’t exist without the other. Indeed, some of the now Chosen might’ve been cursed at some point and were shown mercy by the Lord after paying for their sins, misdeeds, call it whatever you want, and have been reformed and turned to G_d.

Be it individuals or nations. Why would G_d choose to curse someone, or an entire bloodline, or a nation? Usually, I believe, G_d finds a way to let the reason be known to the blessed or the punished. G_d knows how to communicate such things by using the universe to align events, people, and so on, in such a way, that it becomes clear to the chosen and the cursed ones.

It stands to reason that the final destiny of the chosen ones is going to be dignified while the destiny of the cursed, or punished, ones, is going to be demeaning. Not forever, but certainly for long enough to have their thoughts reformed. Now, if G_d is involved in these metaphysical processes, we’re talking about endless dimensions and many lives.

Who’s to say the reform of individuals and nations is limited to one life and one dimension? If G_d’s plan for someone, or entire nations, is reform, that destiny can’t be avoided, and the individual and the collective intertwine in a cosmic synchrony beyond a single life time and reality. As such, even a nuclear war won’t stop G_d’s plan.

G_d is endless and can take as much ”time” as He needs. Case in point.

Much to his dismay, a man is reincarnated and raised as a girl. He discovers that reincarnation is, indeed, a drag.

G_d makes sure she remembers her past and remembers it vividly. Warsaw is different in that new reality. The Great Synagogue of Warsaw stands tall across the ages. She is told to sit in the back of the temple. Her prayer is no longer seen as fully valid. She is discouraged from talking about serious topics.

Rather than talking about the grand geopolitical chess, she’s encouraged to talk and write about cheerful, uplifting, spiritual stuff. She must react to a new name and last name. She looks up her past life but finds nothing. Her past stayed behind. She can’t stand having her shaved legs exposed to the world and all the womanly virtues drilled into her by her new social circle. The girl only brings up her past life in fiction she writes and jokes she tells. Piano finds its way back into her life – much to her chagrin.

She now belongs to a different nation with different traditions and many of these traditions, cultural and linguistic, are hard to grasp or accept for her. Alas, she has no choice but to adjust to her new reality. At some point, G_d decides the psyche polishing phase is over. As such, harsh measures are no longer needed because she has internalized the new thinking, even if she still finds it absurd, the new cultural customs reinforced by her new social circle are stronger than her logic. Resistance is, indeed, futile, as society forces her to play out her new role. Eye-rolling and grinning through gritted teeth is all she can do to resist her punitive fate. G_d knows that sometimes we only change in a reductio ad absurdum scenario.

He tried to run away from his fate, only to arrive at a point where fate was staring him right in the face. Begging G_d for mercy, verbally and in writing, was met with silence. His fate was sealed and all he could do was prepare for his demeaning destiny in the next life.

Did the collective responsibility for all sorts of terrible things perpetrated by the nation he was a member of also influence G_d’s decision to punish him? Was it only the man’s individual actions, intentions and thoughts? Or a mix of individual and collective?

Nations are destined to meet their fate as well. How many times in history did we see nations try to escape their destinies, only to find these destinies staring them in the national face?

It’s kind of like that with countries that go through what I call the puppetization process. Or as I also call it, because it’s a cool alliteration: being forced to join a geopolitical girls’ choir. Maybe a particular nation, or an empire, was complicit in genocide, maybe it posed a threat in some other way and needed to be not-so-much eliminated but reformed in the victor’s image and become an asset rather than a threat. That nation would go through a similar process as the hapless man described earlier, albeit on a macro-geopolitical-scale.

The puppet nation might be aware of its new status or it might be ruled from behind the scenes while the conquered nation’s citizens are fooled into believing they have agency in international relations. In fact, just as it happened to the man earlier, the defeated nation’s identity has been reshaped in the image of the victors/G_d’s vision for the cursed nation using the victors as an instrument to turn that vision into reality.

Assyrians, in particular, had colorful curses, incantations, and spells to use against their enemies.

If G_d’s Chosen are attacked, no matter how vile and hopeless their situation – they are going to emerge victorious while their enemies will be cursed, demeaned, and reformed – eventually. It might take more than a lifetime but it’s going to happen as that is G_d’s plan. Fate. Fatum. Destiny.

All of the above makes G_d the cosmic chess grandmaster.

He knows your moves before you start.