JUDAISM
Christianity
| Islam
How is the human condition understood in the religion?
by Howard Greenstein
Judaism
teaches that a person is neither inherently good nor inherently
evil. Every individual is born with two conflicting inclinations.
One is called the yetzer hatov, the passive or receptive
impulse; the other is called the yetzer hara, the active
or aggressive impulse.
The
yetzer hatov is the innate drive for all creative and constructive
action—music, poetry, art, as well as moral concern for justice,
love, compassion, and righteousness. The yetzer hara is
by contrast the innate drive for aggrandizement—the competitive
instinct, greed, lust and the temptation to succeed at any cost.
This aggressive impulse, however, is not entirely negative or destructive.
According to a midrash, it may even be channeled into positive directions.
As the sages noted, “For were it not for the aggressive impulse
(yetzer hara), no man would build a house, or marry a wife,
nor beget children, nor engage in a trade” (Kohelet Rabbah
3:11).
Elsewhere
in the Midrash, the aggressive impulse is reduced almost to a neutral
force that a person may then manipulate for good or evil purposes.
A constructive application of that impulse will follow the proper
observance of the Torah, as the midrash explains: “Like iron,
out of which man can fashion whatever implements he pleases when
he heats it in the forge, so the aggressive impulse can be subdued
to the service of God if tempered by the words of Torah which is
like fire” (Avot de-Rabbi Natan, Perek 16).
With
this set of premises about the nature of the human condition, the
rabbinic sages concluded that sin or wrongdoing was a state of action,
not a state of being. They taught that Adam’s disobedience
in the Garden of Eden was not the Original Sin which contaminated
all future generations of humankind, but that it was a prototype,
a paradigm, of the kind of transgression to which all people may
succumb as a result of their own imperfections. The “fall”
of Adam is an object lesson in the inevitable limitations of finite
creatures. The rabbis carefully emphasized the full responsibility
of every individual for his/her own sin despite the effects of Adam’s
“fall.”
Nowhere
in its literature does Judaism require a person to atone for some
burden of guilt inherited from the past,
even though the Torah acknowledges (Exodus 20:5) that the errors
of earlier generations invariably affect the predicament of later
generations. No sacrifices in the ancient Temple at Jerusalem, however,
were ever associated with an eternal transgression. No ceremonies
or rituals even hinted at such a concept. Judaism also never embraced
the hope that God would in some manner intervene in the affairs
of a doomed humanity to remove the curse of this guilt from Adam’s
descendants and to redeem people from their presumably corrupt,
evil nature.
In
Jewish tradition, the sin of Adam did not extinguish human moral
freedom or initiative. The major focus has always centered not on
the origin of sin, but on the avoidance of wrongdoing, and on ways
to eliminate it. No person is condemned to sin; but all people are
capable of it, simply because all people are endowed with free will
and the power to choose between good and evil.
Jewish
theology teaches that if a person has committed a sin, he/she may
repent and be forgiven. The initiative, however, must come from
the individual, not from God. The psalmist declared that “the
Lord is near to all who call upon Him in truth” (Ps. 145:18).
The prophet Malachi assured his listeners, “Return to Me,
and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts” (Mal 3:7).
In
Judaism the highest of virtues is repentance. No other religious
literature is more explicit on the subject. The
Talmud teaches that “In the place where a repentant sinner
stands, even the righteous who have never sinned cannot stand”
(Berachot 34b). This comparison does not necessarily imply that
repentant transgressors are better than the wholly righteous, but
only that they occupy a very special place on a divine scale of
values.
Furthermore,
repentance in Judaism is not a mystery or a sacrament. It does not
imply any miraculous transformations in the individual or the rebirth
of his/her soul.
Rather,
repentance is largely a human undertaking. It involves a four-step
process that begins with a readiness to acknowledge a wrongdoing,
followed by acts of compensation for the injury inflicted and genuine
resolve to avoid a repetition of the same sinful deed. Only then
can a person continue with the fourth and final step of praying
for forgiveness and cherish the expectation of receiving God’s
mercy.
In
Jewish tradition life is entirely a matter of choices. One may choose
either good or evil. From the moment of birth every
person is a free agent. One may sin, or one may avoid it. One surely
is not perfect, but every person is perfectible; and one’s
purpose in life is to achieve as much of that moral potential as
one’s humanity will allow. The task is not to eliminate aggressive
inclinations, but to control them and channel them. A person can
be all that God meant him/her to be, or that person may ignore the
opportunity. All depends on individual choice.
Copyright
©2006 Howard Greenstein
Howard
R. Greenstein serves as Rabbi of the Jewish congregation
of Marco Island, Florida. He has previously served congregations
in Florida, Ohio, and Massachusetts. Greenstein has been a Lecturer
at the University of Florida, University of North Florida, and Jacksonville
University. He is the author of Judaism:
An Eternal Covenant (1983) and Turning Point: Zionism
and Reform Judaism (1981).
Excerpts
from What Do Our Neighbors Believe?: Questions and Answers on
Judaism, Christianity and Islam by Howard Greenstein, Kendra
Hotz, and John Kaltner are used by permission from Westminster John
Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky. The book will be available for
purchase in December 2006.
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