Does Judaism believe in fate?

[00:00:00] To give a brief synopsis, what is predestined and what is in our hands. First of all, whenever we are born, we have all the events of our lives set up for us. We have predestined starting when we're going to do what, when, and what's going to happen to us and when we're going to die also, and what are we going to do? It's all set up. There are things that can change it, and there are two things that can change it. A, our own actions, because the mitzvahs that we do and the marriage that we have affect what is happening to us. And B, our prayers. [00:00:42] Our prayers when we ask God for something more. Most of prayers start with the words which means may it be God's will. May it be God's will means right now there's no God's will for it. When I'm saying may it be God's will that Moishe should become healthy, that implies that right now there's no God's will for Moishe to become healthy. Right now God wants him to be sick for whatever reason it is, unfortunately. So I'm praying to change God's will. And God gave us the opportunity of changing his will. And that's what prayer is. But this is not it. If things are predestined for us, it does not mean that we are going to actually receive them. A lot of times you have a large bank account and you don't have a checkbook on you, and you're going to be walking down the street and you are thirsty and you want to buy a bottle of water, and they tell you, give me a dollar. [00:01:44] And you go into your pocket and you're like, oops, I left my wallet and my checkbook at home. And the guy is going to tell you, well, unless you give me a dollar, I'm not going to give you this bottle of water. And you're saying you don't understand. I'm very wealthy. I have a lot of money. I have millions of dollars in my bank account. And the guy's going to tell you, millions of dollars in your bank account are useless to me. I need $1 here. And even though you have millions of dollars in your bank account, if you don't have your ATM card or your checkbook, it's these millions of dollars are useless. [00:02:15] So the same thing is with us. There are a lot of things which are predestined for us, but there are things that are making it get stuck in their way down the pipeline. And this is what blessings are needed for. That's the difference between a prayer and a blessing. Prayer is changing the will of God. Changing. That was predestined. [00:02:39] Blessing is giving you. That was predestined. Just delivering it to you. By the way, most of the time, whenever we need something, we need blessing. Things are already there for us. We just need to get them to us most of the time. But sometimes we need something new also.