The Jewish View
of Sin
Each
person has the inclination to do both good and bad.
By Rabbi Reuven Hammer
This article is excerpted from Entering the High Holy
Days. Reprinted with permission from the Jewish
Publication Society.
Judaism teaches that human beings are not basically sinful.
We come into the world neither carrying the burden of sin committed by our
ancestors nor tainted by it. Rather, sin, het,
is the result of our human inclinations, the yetzer, which must be properly channeled.
Het literally
means something that goes astray. It is a term used in archery to indicate that
the arrow has missed its target. This concept of sin suggests a straying from
the correct ways, from what is good and straight. Can humans be absolved of
their failure and rid themselves of their guilt? The ideology of Yom Kippur
answers: Yes.
These concepts are already found in biblical stories,
including those at the beginning of the Torah, those concerning Israel and its
sins in the wilderness, and in the teachings of the prophets. These writings contemplate
the nature of human beings, the meaning of sin, and the possibility of
forgiveness. The early stories in Genesis teach that the "devisings [yetzer] of man's mind are evil from his
youth" (Gen. 8:21). This is the source of the rabbinic concept of the yetzer, human instincts, similar to the
Freudian id. Later, the rabbis spoke of the yetzer
ha‑tov, the good inclination, and the yetzer ha‑ra, the evil inclination.
The word "forgiveness" or "pardon" (in
Hebrew, s‑l‑h) appears
for the first time in the story of the golden calf: "Pardon our iniquity
and our sin" (Exod. 34:9).The
story of the spies contains a similar idea: "Pardon, I pray, the iniquity
of this people according to Your great kindness, as You have tolerated
[carried] this people ever since Egypt" (Num. 13:5).This text is followed by the verse that is central to the Yom
Kippur liturgy: "And the Lord said, 'I pardon, as you have asked'"
(Num. 14:37).
These narratives establish the concept of the God of
Israel as a God of mercy and forgiveness. In revealing His nature to Moses, God
indicates His forgiving nature much more fully than He did in the Ten
Commandments. God emphasizes mercy, "carrying sin" and extending
lovingkindness far beyond the extent of punishment. Thus, Moses learns that God's
essence is not only His absolute Being and His absolute freedom, but His
fundamental mercy. It is not surprising that the passage in which these
attributes of God are detailed (Exod. 34:6‑7) became the cornerstone of
the liturgy of forgiveness during the High Holy Day season.
In rabbinic Judaism, these ideas evolved into the concept
of the two attributes of God, the attribute of justice and the attribute of
mercy, the latter being the dominant mode of God's activity. The Mesillat Yesharim [an 18th century work of ethical literature]suggested that the attribute of mercy
means that God gives respite to the sinner, not meting out His full punishment
at once, but granting the sinner the opportunity to repent and thus be rid of
the power of the evil inclination.
Rabbi Reuven Hammer holds a Ph.D in theology from the
Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
He teaches Jewish studies and special education in Jerusalem.
