Avodah Mailing List

Volume 44: Number 35

Mon, 29 Jun 2026

• 1. Do Souls have agency? (Yonatan Kaganoff)
• 2. schar psiot (Joel Rich)
• 3. obligated to return (Joel Rich)
• 4. Shehecheyanu on Mitzvos (Akiva Miller)

Assuming the existence of  souls & an afterlife (for souls) from a
traditional Jewish perspective do souls in the afterlife have agency (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agency_(philosophy))?


(For purposes of this question, I'm bracketing out Free Will questions.)

Most texts about the afterlife describe a series of stages/places/steps
that a soul goes through without much choice on the soul?s part.  That
indicates a lack of agency.

However, there is much Midrashic literature about great men & women (such
as the Avos or Moshe Rabbeinu) having some degree of agency after their
deaths.

But Midrashic literature often anthropomorphically and mythopoetically
ascribes agency to many things such as abstract ideas & inanimate objects,
not meant to be taken literally. So one could argue that when Midrashim
describe the Avos interceding on behalf of their descendants, they are
speaking mythopoetically.

And there are stories in the Gemara like that of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi in
Kesuvos 103a making Kiddush for his family after his death. But this might
be limited to great men or it might be an Aggadata not meant to be taken
literally.

Within Chassidic literature (and Early Modern Kabbalah) there are
indications that dead Tzaddikim are agentic insofar as they can choose to
help their Chassidim after their death, but this might be limited to
Tzaddikim and one would have to accept the theology of Chassidus.

Many understandings of praying at the graves of one?s ancestors or
Tzaddikim imply that the dead are somehow interceding one?s behalf. In
which case the dead are indeed agentic. (Of course this might violate
Rambam?s fifth *Ikkar Emunah*, but that?s a separate issue.)

What other sources address this question?
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I was recently listening to a shiur on schar psiot which was discussing
what level of tiebreaker is it? Should you walk to a farther shul even
though the closer one has other benefits such as more intense prayer or
quieter congregants?
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with the time saved by going to a closer one. How much weight should you
give to buying a home closer or farther from a shul. The opportunity cost
of the saved time, which seems to me to be very important, wasn?t
mentioned. Thoughts?

KT
Joel Rich
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Shulchan Arukh, Choshen Mishpat 259
???? ??? ???? ????? ???? ????? ?????? ????? ??? ????? ?? ???? ???? ????
?????? ??? ???? ????? ????? ????? ???? ?????? ?????? ???? ?? ???? (??? ???
??? ???? ????? ???? ??? ????? ????? ????? ????):
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those present] are non-Jews, even if a Jew gave an identifying sign [siman]
in it, one is not obligated to return [the lost object] ? it is good and
upright to act beyond the letter of the law [lifnim mishurat hadin] and
return it to the Jew who gave an identifying sign in it.
(And if he [the finder] is poor and the owner of the lost object is
wealthy, he is not required to act beyond the letter of the law.)?
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KT
Joel Rich
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.
Rabbi Yisroel Pinchos Bodner, in his "Halachos of Brochos vol. 2", on page
37-38, he explains that "Since pidyon haben is a mitzvah that is performed
only once in a great while and it is an occasion of great joy, Chazal
required the father to recite a shehecheyonu prior to performing the
mitzvah." (Immediately after, he writes about saying shehecheyanu at a bris
milah. I get the impression that in theory, the same halacha would apply,
but in practice there are some contra-indications involved.)

What about *other* mitzvos? On page 39 he gives examples like a bar mitzvah
boy putting on tefillin for the first time, a kallah lighting Shabbos
candles the first time, and (in footnote 85) someone who performs Kisui
Hadam for the first time. For these mitzvos, it seems that the poskim are
divided, and he offers practical ideas how to deal with that machlokes.

My question is: What makes Pidyon Haben different? Why can one definitely
say shehecheyanu on Pidyon Haben, but all these other mitzvos are
problematic? Rabbi Bodner gives extensive footnotes showing which poskim
hold this way or that way, but I did not see any *explanation* of this
distinction.

In footnote 75, he cites Gemara Pesachim 121b about saying shehecheyanu at
a pidyon haben. I suppose it is possible that this is the only mitzva for
which the Gemara explicitly says to say shehecheyanu, and that's why all
others are questionable. But that answer would make sense only if there
were a similarly explicit gemara about shehecheyanu at a bris milah, and I
did not notice that mentioned.

Any ideas?
advTHANKSance

Akiva Miller
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