Creation itself was declared tov me’od — very good. You are His child. He does not need your goodness; He wants you to choose it. The command in Devarim is still the same one that stood between the two trees:
“See, I have set before you life and good, death and evil… choose life.”
The Tree of Life was never removed from the structure of reality. It is still the option. Hashem is already in every human life as HaMakom. The only thing He leaves entirely in your hands is whether you will fear Heaven — whether you will turn toward Him and choose good.
The Jewish idea, in short
Free will had to exist in the Garden. That is why there were two trees.
If there had been only the Tree of Life, Adam and Chava would have had no real alternative. Love that cannot be refused is not love; obedience that cannot be refused is not choice. Hashem therefore placed the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the same garden so that the first humans — and every human after them — would stand before a genuine decision.
The Sages put the paradox in one sentence (Berachot 33b):
“Everything is in the hands of Heaven except the fear of Heaven.”
And Rabbi Akiva (Avot 3:15):
“Everything is foreseen, yet free will is given.”
Hashem knows the whole story because He is not in the story. He is HaMakom — The Place. The world exists inside Him; He is not contained by the world. Time and space are His creations. His four-letter Name (Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh) itself holds hayah / hoveh / yihyeh — was, is, and will be — at once. From outside time, He sees every moment. From inside time, you still choose.
That is the “Name squared” image: the letters arranged in a geometric square containing galaxies. The Name is not a label inside the universe; the universe is inside the Name.
Creation itself was declared tov me’od — very good. You are His child. He does not need your goodness; He wants you to choose it. The command in Devarim is still the same one that stood between the two trees:
“See, I have set before you life and good, death and evil… choose life.”
The Tree of Life was never removed from the structure of reality. It is still the option. Hashem is already in every human life as HaMakom. The only thing He leaves entirely in your hands is whether you will fear Heaven — whether you will turn toward Him and choose good.
מקום in standard gematria is 186.
מ=40,ק=100,ו=6,ם=40
40+100+6+40=186
That is the number that the Arizal and, later, the Kabbalists pair with the squared Tetragrammaton.
The squared Name (Mispar Perati)
Do not square 26. Square each letter of יהוה:
102+52+62+52=100+25+36+25=186
HaMakom
With the article: המקום = 5 + 186 = 191.
If the final mem is counted gadol (600): מקום = 746. The usual teaching uses the simple 186.
Where the word first appears
Genesis 1:9: “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered unto one place (makom).” The first makom in Torah is the gathering-point of creation — space itself being assigned a location by the One who is not located.
The midrash that names Him HaMakom
Bereishit Rabbah 68:9, on Yaakov at Bet-El (“he encountered the place”):
Why do they call the Holy One HaMakom? Because He is the Place of the world, and the world is not His place.
That is the theological payload of 186: He contains time and space; they do not contain Him. That is also why foreknowledge and free will can stand together.
Other 186 identities used in the sources
| Form | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| מקום | 186 | Place / HaMakom without the heh |
| יהוה squared letterwise | 186 | Arizal / mispar perati |
| קוף (letter kuf spelled out) | 100+6+80 = 186 | Kuf is the inner letter of makom |
| יעקב + its 4 letters | 182 + 4 = 186 | Ohr Chadash: Yaakov is the “place” for Israel |
| נקודה (165) + small gematria of נקודה (21) | 186 | Some creation teachings: the primordial point plus its reduced value |
The letters of the word itself
מקום splits as מ–ם (the two mems, waters / presence) around קו (kav, the ray). Chassidic writers read that as: the inner letters are the kav that enters the vacated space; the outer letters are the mem of the primordial “waters.” Space is not empty. It is structured by the Name.
Reduced / katan
1+8+6 = 15; 1+5 = 6. Six is vav, the connector between the Name and makom. The Place holds the worlds together.
For the video line, the clean teaching is:
Square the Name: 100 + 25 + 36 + 25 = 186.
186 is Makom.
The Name squared is The Place.
That is the gematria. The midrash is the meaning.
“But Hashem already knows what I will do — so where is free will?”
From outside the reel, He sees every frame at once. That is what the Name means: hayah, hoveh, yihyeh — was, is, will be — one word. Square the letters, and you get 186, which is Makom. He is the Place that contains the film. Knowing the movie is not the same as forcing the actor.
From inside a frame, the choice is real. Rabbi Akiva: All is foreseen, yet free will is given. Free will is not a single moment at the beginning. It is everywhere on the strip.
The film strip and the Matrix line
Your life is already on the reel, like a finished movie in the can. In the block universe, you can “visit” any frame — memory, teshuvah, even prayer that reaches “back” — but you do not cut frames out. The Matrix line is used that way: you did not drop into this world only to invent a path from nothing. You entered a story that already has a shape, and you are here to understand why you chose and to live out that choice as His child.
That does not cancel bechirah. The Oracle can see the door. You still walk through it.
What has Hashem made you for
He made you with potential. He made you succeed. You are not a prop outside Him. You are a frame inside HaMakom. The two trees are still standing in the middle of the garden because a movie without a real choice is not a human life.
In 2000, at Rabin Medical Center in Israel, Professor Leonard Leibovici took the charts of 3,393 patients who had bloodstream infections between 1990 and 1996. He randomized them, double-blind. Then people prayed for one group — years after those hospital stays were already over.
The prayed-for group had a slightly lower death rate (28.1% vs 30.2%) and significantly shorter hospital stays and fever. The prayer landed in the past.
Ephraim’s point is not “science proved tefillah.” He says it himself: an interesting, controversial study that fits what the Torah already teaches. In Hashem’s world, there is no separate past. He is HaMakom. Every frame is present to Him. So ein mukdam u’meuchar baTorah — there is no before and after in the Torah. Avraham is not gone. Kaddish is not only memory. A mitzvah can touch a life then.
The four reasons (Shaar HaGilgulim, as Ephraim teaches them)
- Repair. You crossed a prohibition. The soul returns to fix the break.
- Finish the mitzvah. You left a positive command undone. Torah itself is the endless one: if you only learn pshat, you return to it until you also learn remez, drash, and sod. Four levels. You can learn forever.
- Help someone else. Not because you failed. Because you are needed. A soul that has already done well is sent back to guide and rectify others.
- Bashert. Free will can make two destined souls miss each other. The wheel brings them again.
Purpose
The destination is set. The route is yours. Ephraim’s GPS: you take a wrong turn, and it says, “Recalculating.” Same end. New road. Hashem made you to succeed. Gilgul is not a trap. It is time to learn and to choose good in this frame.
Free Will is the only thing you do not do against your will.
Hazan Gavriel ben David
Key Takeaways
- Creation embodies free will, symbolized by the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge, allowing genuine choices.
- Hashem exists outside time and space, enabling humans to choose good while knowing the entire story.
- The concept of HaMakom emphasizes that every human life has purpose and potential, as the universe exists within the divine.
- Lessons from gematria connect the idea of Free Will to the squared Tetragrammaton, revealing deeper spiritual insights.
- Free will is not limited to initial choices; it’s an ongoing journey where every decision matters within God’s framework.