My Rabbi told me that free choice will be taken away when Mashiach comes, is that true?
The question of whether we will have free will in the times of Mashiach is a very difficult issue. The truth is, we cannot know for certain anything about the future; in the words of Miamonides (Hil. Melachim 12:2), anything about the times of Mashiach “nobody knows what it will be like, until it will already be here” � However, this discussion of free will in the times of Moshiach, surfaces in many places.
The question really starts with Adam, because the entire process of history as-we-know-it, is to return to a natural state of being in the presence of G-d in the same way as Adam was before he sinned – and this state we name “the days of Mashiach” or “the end of days”.
Clearly, Adam had free will, he could have chosen to eat from the Tree, and by doing that he would have succeeded in achieving what G-d had in mind, and thereby go directly to Olam Haba/the-world-to-come . . . or he could have chosen to eat from the Tree, and fail in this test. A test can only be a test, and one can only get a reward/punishment, if one has free will. Therefore Adam must have had free will.
By us returning to the state of Adam pre-sin, (in the times of Mashiach) we are returning to a state of where we have free choice, and our free choice at that point gets us into Olam Haba.
This sounds cool, but we have a problem, which is a few statements in the Talmud:
a) “There will come a time when you will say ‘I have no desire for them'[Kohelet 12] This is a reference to the days of the Mashiach, when there will be neither merit nor de-merit.” (Shabbat 151b)
b) “In the future G-d is going to destroy the Yetzer Hara (evil inclination.)” (Sukkah 52b)
These statements don’t sound like we will have free choice in the future.
What is going on here, will we, or won’t we have free choice?
The answer is (this explanation is offered by Rabbi Dessler in his Michtav Me’Eliyahu, Volume 2, page 147), that of course WE WILL HAVE free will in the times of Mashiach, however, the kind of decisions that we will be making are very different from the ones we are making now: When we think about it, was Adam’s sin so terrible, what did he do that was immoral? The answer is that he disobeyed G-d’s explicit command, but from our perspective it was nothing. What would he think about the kind of things that we do wrong? He probably would think that we are insane. The kind of thing that we would do wrong, for him, would be like putting his hands in fire. Would a sane person put his hands in a fire? But we all do have free will to put our hands into fire!
In short:
FROM OUR PERSPECTIVE NOW: The kind of life during the times of Mashiach, is one where we have no choice.
FROM OUR PERSPECTIVE THEN: The kind of life during the times of Mashiach, is one where we do have free choice (like Adam had.)
Of course we will have free will in the times of Mashiach, but we will all know the correct choice – but, of course we could choose to do evil. If we wouldn’t have the free choice to do bad, what would have been the point of creating the world? G-d doesn’t want robots, G-d wants humans.
The question was a great question, and the answer is a difficult one. I hope this was useful, and that I answered your questions.
Good Luck.