Joe thanks the angel and begins his trek towards room 328.<\/p>\n
He starts to get nervous, thinking to himself, \u2018This is it; I know I was kind of a good guy, but then again I also messed up plenty.\u2019<\/p>\n
Joe follows the directions given to him by the angel and, as he gets closer to room 328, his (non-existent) heart starts pounding. He arrives at the door, slowly opens it up and\u2026 WHAM!<\/p>\n
There it is! A big mountain of reward!<\/p>\n
Joe starts jumping for joy. He starts doing cartwheels and backflips, etc.<\/p>\n
Joe is on top of the world as he sees all the wonderful things he achieved in his life with his time here on Earth.<\/p>\n
However, a couple of minutes later, a huge bulldozer comes along and smashes into Joe\u2019s big mountain of reward, pushing half of it away.<\/p>\n
Joe screams out, \u201c’No! Stop! What are you doing? You\u2019re taking away my mitzvot!\u201d At that moment, Joe wonders, \u2018Who\u2019s driving the bulldozer anyway?\u2019 He looks closely and, to his utter shock, he sees two gleeful people smiling and waving.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s his parents!<\/p>\n
They say to him, \u201cYou did all of these great things, but we get some credit for them too. We raised you to be that good guy that you turned out to be. A lot of this reward belongs to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joe acknowledges that what his parents are saying is in fact correct and, reluctantly, he watches as what he thought were his mitzvot are dragged away.<\/p>\n
A few minutes pass, and Joe begins to come to terms with what he just witnessed as he looks ahead to the half-a-mountain\u2019s-worth of reward he still has left.<\/p>\n
However, right at that moment, another bulldozer comes along \u2013 a little smaller this time \u2013 and smashes into Joe\u2019s half-mountain of reward, pushing away half of what is left.<\/p>\n
Joe cries out, \u201cNo! Not again! Stop! What are you doing?\u201d. \u2018Who\u2019s riding this bulldozer anyway?\u2019 Joe wonders. Again, Joe looks closely only to find familiar looking people gleefully smiling and waving back at him.<\/p>\n
This time the people on the bulldozer are his teachers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis belongs to us, you know\u201d they say. \u201cWe taught you. We helped you out when you needed it. We set you on your path to goodness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Again Joe reluctantly concedes.<\/p>\n
This process continues until that last guy who Joe once met on a bus and got a good piece of advice from comes along with his little sack and throws a few things in and runs off.<\/p>\n
And, at the end of this process, what Joe is left with is what he actually put in and built himself. The effort, true personal advancement, and the striving that Joe did ultimately defines who he is.<\/p>\n
This is where Free Will comes in to play.<\/p>\n
What did Joe actually do<\/em>? What did he<\/em> actually put in on his own? What did he<\/em> do with what he was given? Everything else is the stage being set for greatness, but it is up to each individual to get onto that stage and be a star.<\/p>\n This is the individualistic relative nature of Free Will.<\/p>\n Everyone has Free Will in different places. Therefore, we are each to acknowledge the positive we have done while always trying to build on it, and judge others favorably and in accordance with the deeper reality that, at their core, they are a pure Godly soul.<\/p>\n On Yom Kippurn, as we look back on the past year and look forward to the year to come, let us keep in our minds and our hearts that our spiritual level and our relationship with the Infinite will always be one and the same with the sum total of the Free Will choices that he makes under the specific conditions that he\u2019s been dealt \u2013 nothing more, nothing less.<\/p>\n