Sam2 –
It certainly is not awful. I did not say (or imply) that Hashem’s knowledge is limited. Just because the analogy breaks down, does not make it Kefira. No analogy can be True. In the final analysis, it is only an analogy. The purpose of the analogy is grasp two aspects of Bechira in a simple,quick way.
What you are failing to see is that humans are limited. Therefore we need to use analogies to compare something we don’t know to something else that we do. The question rationalfrummie is asking is something along the lines of “I can’t motivate myself to make hishtadlus if everything is pre-determined.” I think it is a mitzva to help him with the chess analogy. The Torah itself uses analogies such as when it talks about Hashem’s “Hand”. As a result, there are people (Mormons) who believe Hashem is physical. Does it hurt more than it helps? Apparently, Hashem doesn’t think so.
If you want the Truth, then you are out of luck because you are running up against the limits of human capacity. That is (part of) what the 3-D chess analogy is used for. In order to understand the Truth, you must understand a world where movement can occur in 4 dimensions. (The fourth dimension is time.) This can only be understood by a human by extrapolating the human experience in 3 dimensions to the Olamos HaElyonim which have 4 dimensions. To grasp how difficult this is, try to extrapolate from a 2 dimensional chess board to a 3 dimensional chess board. In 2 dimensions the pieces are designed to look the same from either side of the board. Does this mean that 3-D chess pieces must look the same from all six viewpoints? If so, what are their shapes? Would each major piece be protected by 5 pawns (Each pawn protecting from one of the other players) – or would the pawn be shaped like a half bagel and cover 5 squares? Is it O.K. for 5 players to form an alliance to defeat the sixth player?
Basically, the 3-D analogy shows that using extrapolation we can’t get an accurate picture when done from 2D to 3D, and therefore it’s logical to assume that it doesn’t work from 3D to 4D either. The Truth is unavailable to us about Free will. We CAN understand enough to be motivated to play the “game” of life according to the rules that Hashem has given us by making a proper hishtadlus.
For instance, rationalfrummie’s question about Rosh Hashanna is answered by the concept of Hashem’s will being conditional. The Gezeira is not you will get z dollars. The gezeira is if you do x mitzvos, you get y dollars. But if you do x/2 mitzvos, then you will get y/3 dollars. (Hopefully everybody understands by now that this is an analogy and the Truth of what is in the Gezeira can not be understood by humans.)