What is fascinating is that none of these lists is related to the others. The way Rambam divides the commands in his law-code is different from the way he does so in Sefer Hamitzvot, and different again from the classification in the Guide. Nor is any related to the 14 rules for counting the number of the commands. It seems, simply, that for Rambam the number 14 (2×7) was his favored organizing principle.
If, therefore, we knew nothing of Rambam’s principles of the faith and had to guess, on the basis of everything else we know about his writings, how many there were, the answer would be not 13 but 14. Does Rambam in fact believe in a 14th principle of faith? The answer is that he does. Here is how he sets it out:
“Free will is bestowed on every human being. If one desires to turn toward the good way and be righteous, he has the power to do so. If one wishes to turn toward the evil way and be wicked, he is at liberty to do so…This doctrine is an important principle, the pillar of the law and the commandment …If God had decreed that a person should either be righteous or wicked…what room could there be for the whole of the Torah? By what right or justice could God punish the wicked or reward the righteous?” (Teshuvah 5: 1-6)
Rambam leaves us without doubt that free will is one of the fundamental principles of faith, without which Judaism would not make sense. If we lacked freedom, there would be no point in God commanding us, “Do this. Don’t do that.” Nor would there be any logic in reward and punishment, both of which presuppose human responsibility for our actions. Free will is the 14th principle of Jewish faith.
Why then in his Commentary to the Mishnah does Rambam list 13 principles, not 14? The answer lies in the context. Rambam is commenting on a Mishnah that speaks about those who “have no share in the World to Come.” He is listing, in other words, those principles, denial of which places one outside the community of faith. What they have in common is that they are beliefs about G-d. The 14th principle is not a belief about G-d, but about humanity. The first 13 summarize our faith in G-d. The 14th – the fact that G-d has granted us the freedom to choose how to behave – represents G-d’s faith in humankind.
The Prooftext for the 14th principle comes from this week’s sedrah of Nitzavim. It appears at the climax of Moshe’s great challenge to the next generation: “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, so that you and your children may live” (Deut. 30: 19).
Judaism is a religion of freedom and responsibility. Against all the many determinisms in the history of thought – astrological, philosophical, Spinozist, Marxist, Freudian, neo-Darwinian – Judaism insists that we are masters of our fate. We are neither programmed nor predestined. We can choose. That is the 14th principle of Jewish faith.