Wow reading Jewish ideas is interesting, but way so different from my own...
------------------------------------------------------------
www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-jewish-view-of-sin/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, chet, is the result of our human inclinations, the yetzer, which must be properly channeled.
Chet 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 : Yes.
Rob: " Jews don't seem to have an origin of sin?
The Hebrew word for sin is chet, which literally means "missing the mark." According to Jewish beliefs, a person sins when he or she strays away from making good, correct choices. It is believed that a person's inclination, called yetzer, is an instinctual force that can send people astray and lead them into sin unless one deliberately chooses otherwise. The principle of yetzer has sometimes been compared to Freud's concept of the id—a pleasure-seeking instinct that aims at self-gratification at the expense of reasoned choice.
The rabbinic duality of yetzer hara, the so-called “evil inclination,” and yetzer hatov, the “good inclination,” is more subtle than the names connote. Yetzer hara is not a demonic force that pushes a person to do evil, but rather a drive toward pleasure or property or security, which if left unlimited, can lead to evil (cf. Genesis Rabbah 9:7). When properly controlled by the yetzer hatov, the yetzer hara leads to many socially desirable results, including marriage, business, and community.
For the rabbis, adults are distinguished from children by the yetzer hatov, which controls and channels the drives that exist unchecked in the child. Thus children may seek pleasure and acquisition, but they are not able to create a sanctified relationship or exercise the responsibility to engage in business.
Developing a Moral Sense
The classical text that describes how children are born with a yetzer hara but only later develop a yetzer hatov comes from Avot
d’Rabbi Natan, a third-century midrashic companion volume to the more well known Ethics of the Fathers.
The yetzer hara is 13 years older than the yetzer hatov. While still in the mother’s womb, the yetzer hara begins to develop in a person. If he begins to violate the Sabbath, nothing stops him. If he commits murder, nothing stops him. If he goes off to another sin, nothing stops him.
But 13 years later, the yetzer hatov is born. When he violates the Sabbath, it rebukes him, “Airhead [literally: “empty one”]! Don’t you know it says ‘Everyone who violates it will surely be put to death’ (Exodus 31:14)?” If he is about to commit murder, it rebukes him, “Airhead! Don’t you know it says ‘Whoever sheds a man’s blood, by man will his blood be shed’ (Genesis 9:6)?” If he is about to engage in a sexual sin, it rebukes him, “Airhead! Don’t you know it says ‘Both the adulterer and the adulteress will surely be put to death’ (Leviticus 20:10)?” (Avot d’Rabbi Natan 16).
Rob: "OK so where does this yetzer hara and yetzer hatov come from?
www.jewfaq.org/human.htmThe Dual Nature
In Genesis 2:7, the Bible states that G-d formed (vayyitzer) man. The spelling of this word is unusual: it uses two consecutive Yods instead of the one you would expect. The rabbis inferred that these Yods stand for the word "yetzer," which means impulse, and the existence of two Yods here indicates that humanity was formed with two impulses: a good impulse (the yetzer tov) and an evil impulse (the yetzer ra).
The yetzer tov is the moral conscience, the inner voice that reminds you of G-d's law when you consider doing something that is forbidden. According to some views, it does not enter a person until his 13th birthday, when he becomes responsible for following the commandments. See Bar Mitzvah.
The yetzer ra is more difficult to define, because there are many different ideas about it. It is not a desire to do evil in the way we normally think of it in Western society: a desire to cause senseless harm. Rather, it is usually conceived as the selfish nature, the desire to satisfy personal needs (food, shelter, sex, etc.) without regard for the moral consequences of fulfilling those desires.
The yetzer ra is not a bad thing. It was created by G-d, and all things created by G-d are good. The Talmud notes that without the yetzer ra (the desire to satisfy personal needs), man would not build a house, marry a wife, beget children or conduct business affairs. But the yetzer ra can lead to wrongdoing when it is not controlled by the yetzer tov. There is nothing inherently wrong with hunger, but it can lead you to steal food. There is nothing inherently wrong with sexual desire, but it can lead you to commit rape, adultery, incest or other sexual perversion.
The yetzer ra is generally seen as something internal to a person, not as an external force acting on a person. The idea that "the devil made me do it" is not in line with the majority of thought in Judaism. Although it has been said that Satan and the yetzer ra are one and the same, this is more often understood as meaning that Satan is merely a personification of our own selfish desires, rather than that our selfish desires are caused by some external force.
People have the ability to choose which impulse to follow: the yetzer tov or the yetzer ra. That is the heart of the Jewish understanding of free will. The Talmud notes that all people are descended from Adam, so no one can blame his own wickedness on his ancestry. On the contrary, we all have the ability to make our own choices, and we will all be held responsible for the choices we make.
Rob: This is interesting stuff.... so GOD created man with a dual nature with both, yetzer tov or the yetzer ra, built into us, the conscience voice of Holy Spirit talks to us from age 13, and we hear the yetzer tov telling us to override the yetzer ra naturally in us as well. So I am hungry, if I don't satisfy my hunger, I might steal for it. Well there is a Hebrew proverb for his idea...
It's interesting. I can see Dave's journey in this. Tov and Ra designed by GOD. Man comes with Yetzer. The Ha-satanas attorney helps in the testing, driving the natural processes of Tov and Ra across the universe.
It would be also interesting now to learn how Jews see GOD as a God of love? How can love be reconciled with Ra? Aren't these two concepts of loving opposites?
