Jews don’t believe in original sin or a fall of man. We do not believe the human race is totally sinful.

There may be some confusion with our terms. Messianic Jews and Christians believe we have fallen from the ideal state in which we were created, and now moral corruption is an inescapable part of our nature. We do not believe that people are totally and exclusively sinful, incapable of doing or choosing anything good. Rather, we believe that by nature we are hopelessly prone to sin and thoroughly entangled with sin.

It is because Adam fell—and we must remember that Adam is the father of the human race according to the Torah—that there are murders, rapes, thefts, and criminal acts committed every moment of every day. Because of Adam’s fall, we kill one another in war, imprison and torture one another for our own cruel purposes, and even commit genocide. We spend millions of dollars annually on every type of sexual perversion—including pedophilia—while we waste millions more on addictive and destructive drugs. And even the best of us admit to our moral failures, doing things we wish we wouldn’t do—in fact, we judge others for doing these very things—and being ashamed of our thoughts, words, or deeds. We are, tragically, a fallen race.

Before we look at the evidence in the Hebrew Scriptures, let me explain what we mean by “original sin” and “the fall.” We do not believe that human beings can never do anything good, nor do we believe that all people are always and only evil. On the contrary, we recognize many noble and admirable qualities in countless individuals, and we do not believe that even the most wicked person is devoid of at least some positive, moral qualities. Rather, we believe that as Adam went, so we have gone, and thus our race is a fallen race and we sin “by nature.”³²⁰

According to the Torah, God created the human race to be perfect, giving us a free will capable of choosing complete obedience. In the beginning, it was not our nature to sin; we were not inherently corrupt. When the parents of our race chose to disobey, however, their act produced a catastrophic chain reaction, and sin is now “in our blood,” just as the HIV virus is often found in the blood of a child born to someone suffering from AIDS.

No one has to teach a child to disobey, lie, or act selfishly. It comes all too naturally. In fact, it is fairly common for us to criticize the parents of other children we know—”I would never raise my child like that”—until we have our own kids! As a parent, haven’t you often asked yourself, “Where did my son (or daughter) ever learn such behavior?” The fact is, they didn’t have to “learn” such behavior.

It came naturally! It won’t do to blame their behavior on the “bad kids” your “good kid” hung out with, since the parents of the “bad kids” say the same thing about your child. Plus, most of the bad habits our children did pick up were picked up from us parents, and we picked those things up from our parents, who picked them up from their parents.… Something is wrong with the human race.

Isn’t it strange that the things we “naturally” seem to like and enjoy the most tend to be the very things that are bad for us? Who ever overindulges on brussels sprouts? It is all too easy to overeat, oversleep, or become addicted to one fleshly lust or another, while it takes determination and resolve to live a disciplined life. Something seems fundamentally amiss.

Just as it takes very little effort to sail with the wind but plenty of effort to sail against it, so also it takes almost no effort to do what is wrong but plenty of effort to do what is right. Do you need to discipline yourself to eat sweets? Do you need to push yourself to have lustful thoughts? Do you find it necessary to strive to be lazy? Is it difficult for you to be selfish? There is no denying the fact that our nature tends to do wrong.

Let’s consider this from a different perspective. When you imagine what heaven will be like, do you think there will be murder there? How about hatred? Anger? Greed? Bitterness? Selfishness? Impurity? Cursing? Lying? Will you need a guard dog to protect your premises or a handgun to ward off burglars? Will there be large prisons there to house the criminals? Will you live in constant fear and dread? Of course not, otherwise heaven—by anyone’s definition—would not be heaven. And that’s the point.

The Torah teaches us in Genesis that everything God created was good. In fact, when God completed the creation of our world, he pronounced it tov meʾod, “Very good.” (Even if you differ with me here and don’t take these chapters literally, you cannot escape from the overall teaching that emerges: The Lord called the work of his hands “very good.”) Just a few chapters later, we find shame, fear, duplicity, and denial, followed by jealousy, murder (the firstborn son of Adam and Eve kills his own brother), pervasive corruption, and every kind of evil, to the point that God decides to wipe out the entire human race, with the exception of Noah and his family. Adam and Eve, the progenitors of our race, were the pinnacle of God’s handiwork; the first child born to them after they disobeyed God (they had no children before that time) became a murderer, guilty of fratricide.

Something horrible happened in between Genesis 1, when God pronounced everything “very good,” and chapter 4, when Cain killed Abel. We call this—with good reason—the fall of man, and it explains why children kill their own parents and parents abuse their own children; why some women sell their bodies for shameful purposes and why some men rape women without shame; why each country must have trained armies and—if possible—nuclear arsenals to protect itself from its neighbors; and why in the twentieth century in sophisticated countries such as America and South Africa there could still be widespread racial prejudice and injustice, while in civilized Europe there could be a Nazi Holocaust and a Bosnian ethnic cleansing. The fall of man also explains why there is sickness and disease in the world, why babies are born handicapped, why the earth produces weeds and thorns, and why animals eat one another to live. That is not the way God intended things to be.

In the beginning of human history, there was a fall, and we have not gotten better since. We cannot extricate ourselves from our nature. As the Lord said through the prophet Jeremiah, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil” (Jer. 13:23).

Consider the fact that the twentieth century was the worst in recorded history in terms of national atrocities, murders, and wars.³²¹ And no sooner is a new technology discovered than it is being used for a destructive purpose—either a hi-tech weapon of war designed to kill a large number of individuals, or a new tool for sexual exploitation and bondage, such as those found on the Internet. Something is innately wrong with our race! When we see a sign that says, “Don’t touch!” we want to touch. Isn’t this true?

Common sense tells us that God did not make us intrinsically evil or else he would not have been so grieved over our actions, nor would he have found it necessary to destroy us before we destroyed ourselves (see Gen. 6:1–12).³²² And remember, it was so-called “normal” people who either actively or passively participated in the horrors of the Holocaust, the Cambodian genocide, the murderous Communist purges, and the horrors in Rwanda. People did things they never dreamed they would do. Have you—even in ways that are much less shocking or obvious?

Ask the most religious or moral person you know if he or she has had secret thoughts or desires that would embarrass them if they were made known. (You could ask yourself this same question too.) How many times have you done something good only to recognize that you were miserably tainted by pride and self-righteousness even in the very act of doing that good deed or performing that noble service? The fact is, that’s human nature—a nature that is fatally flawed and terribly tainted. To quote again from the Book of Jeremiah, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9).

You might ask, “How then do you explain our noble qualities? Why is it that we often resist temptation and actually improve ourselves morally?” The answer is simple: We are created in God’s image, and we have a divinely given conscience that seeks to move us away from evil and in the direction of good. But the divine image within us has been contaminated, corrupted, and marred. Look at what the Bible says in Genesis 5:1, 3: “This is the written account of Adam’s line. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.… When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.”

God made Adam in his own, perfect image, but Adam—after his disobedience and fall—produced offspring in his own, imperfect image. The image of God our Father has been corrupted through the image of our father Adam to the point that, by nature, we are more the children of Adam than we are the children of God.

The reason we often strive to do good, engage in sacrificial, charitable acts, and feel guilty when we sin is because there is still a moral light within us (see John 1:4), something we call the conscience, the “shell” of the divine image in which we were created. God’s Spirit is also working with us to convict us and turn us back, and if we have been exposed to Scripture, God’s Word is also calling us to reform our ways. There is a battle going on in our souls, unless, of course, we have given up the fight.

The problem is that no matter how much we try, we cannot really eradicate moral corruption from our lives. If the human race had ten billion years for self-improvement, it would never reach its goal. No matter how hard we try on our own to live up to God’s standards, we will still fall hopelessly short.

To give yourself a simple test, consider that the first and greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart and soul and strength and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself, then try to live out these commandments twenty-four hours a day. Or take an honest, hard look at Yeshua’s moral teaching in Matthew 5–7 and see how you measure up to the Messiah’s standards. (He explained that if you simply look at someone lustfully you have committed adultery in you heart, while harboring hatred makes you a murderer in your heart.) You might find yourself undone after reading these words. You might also want to experiment on yourself by trying to rid your character of “little” sins such as envy, pride, and greed. You’ll be amazed to see just how binding sin is.

Let me remind you of the testimony of Scripture. We already mentioned that in Noah’s day, out of the entire population of the world, only eight people were spared.³²³ This is absolutely overwhelming. But there is something even more overwhelming: The reason that God has not sent another flood to destroy the world again is not because we have become better. No, it is because we are the same. This is what God said immediately after the flood, “Never again will I doom the earth because of man, since the devisings of man’s mind are evil from his youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living being, as I have done” (Gen. 8:21 NJPSV).

The Bible is telling us that if God were to destroy the world because of our wickedness, he would have to do it continually! And note that it was not some fundamentalist Christian preacher who stated that “the devisings [Hebrew, yetser] of man’s mind are evil from his youth.” This is the “diagnosis” of our spiritual condition as given by the Lord and as recorded in our Torah. Tragically, this was the condition of mankind before the flood (see Gen. 6:5), and our condition remained unchanged after the flood.³²⁴ This speaks volumes. Even severe judgment cannot eradicate our sinful roots.

Moving ahead in our history as recorded in Scripture, within days of receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, we broke the very first commandment (not to worship idols), and of the entire generation that came out of Egypt in the exodus, only two people entered the land of Canaan. (This too is worthy of some serious reflection.)

Our first king, Saul, was an apostate. His successor, David, our greatest king, committed adultery and murder, while his son Solomon, our wisest king, fell into gross idolatry and almost unimaginable polygamy (seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines). Yet the days of David and Solomon are considered the golden age of our history! One generation later, Israel and Judah split into the northern and southern kingdoms, and within 250 hundred years, the northern kingdom of Israel—all of whose kings were evil—was scattered and destroyed, a state in which it remains to this day. As for the southern kingdom of Judah, it was destroyed and exiled 150 years after the downfall of the northern tribes. Why? Because of pervasive, universal sin.³²⁵

Just consider the words of the prophets. In Jeremiah 5:1, the Lord said to his faithful prophet, “Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city.” But Jeremiah could not find even one godly person!

In this same period of time the Lord said to Ezekiel, “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord” (Ezek. 22:30–31).

I appeal to you to accept the testimony of our prophets: God destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. because our people as a whole—both nationally and individually—turned away from him. There was scarcely a righteous person among us! Then, after five centuries of restoration in the Land (with plenty of foreign occupation because of our persistent sin), both the Temple and the city of Jerusalem were destroyed again (this took place in 70 C.E.). To this day, more than nineteen hundred years later, the Temple has not been rebuilt.

Even now, as we witness the ongoing miracle of the rebirth of the State of Israel, our moral problems still persist. Nothing has really changed. Most Israelis, practically speaking, are atheists and materialists, while drug use, alcoholism, pornography, and even prostitution are rampant in the “Holy Land.” And every female soldier serving in the Israeli army is allowed two free abortions!

As for the very religious Jews, the ultra-Orthodox, they are not always so orthodox. Prominent leaders among them have been caught in political and monetary scandals (not to mention some not-so-hidden sexual scandals as well), while they have been known to use strong-armed intimidation tactics on their religious and theological opponents.³²⁶

Something is fundamentally wrong with our people, even though God has paid more attention to us and given us more opportunities to do right than any other people on earth. The sad verdict is inescapable: We too suffer from that universal condition called a sinful nature. Jews are smitten with it just as much as Gentiles are. All of us need divine help.

To repeat what I have been saying, if human beings are not fallen, why can’t the Palestinians and Israelis simply forgive, forget, and embrace one another in trust? Or here in America, why can’t the White Supremacists and the Black Muslims form a coalition of brotherhood? And why do most criminals get out of prison only to go back to their crimes?

Maybe now you can better understand the words of the Tanakh. David states, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Ps. 51:5), while Isaiah 53:6 says, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” Similarly, Proverbs 20:9 asks, “Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin?’ ” and Ecclesiastes 7:20 declares, “There is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.”³²⁷ From the least to the greatest, we all fall short.³²⁸

Of course, it is possible to point to outstandingly moral individuals, such as the Chafetz Chayyim in Judaism or Mahatma Ghandi in Hinduism. But these seeming exceptions actually prove the rule of the pervasive nature of human sin.

“Really?” you say. “How so?”

Let me answer your question with three questions of my own: (1) Why do men like this stand out in their generation? Why are such individuals so rare? It is because we are a sinful lot. And even someone like Mahatma Ghandi had the fatal flaw of being a devoted idol worshiper, something that Judaism forbids for Gentiles too. (2) What do these people say about themselves? Aren’t they far more critical of themselves—and certainly far less impressed with themselves—than their admirers are? (3) Would the saintliest rabbi say that he had no need of atonement? Would he say he could stand before God without pleading for mercy? Then how much less can the “average Jew” trust in his or her own righteousness? Let me say it again: We all fall short.

Speaking of “falling” short, there are also some interesting traditional Jewish teachings about the fall of man. Thus the Encyclopedia of Jewish Religion, summarizing the major teachings on the subject, simply states that

through the sin of its first ancestors, the whole human race “fell” from bliss and grace. Christian theology holds this “original sin” to have involved mankind in an inherent and congenital sinfulness and depravity from which only a special Divine act can “save” them. The rabbis generally held that all men die because of Adam’s sin (a divergent view is expressed by R. Ammi in Shab. 55a) but did not teach a doctrine of original sin. There is, however, a view that the serpent transmitted to Eve a blemish [by copulation] which she passed on to all her descendants. At Mt. Sinai the Israelites were restored to man’s original state of perfection, but this was undone again by the sin of the golden calf.³²⁹

Some midrashic traditions picture Adam as a massive and glorious being whose face outshone the sun and who could stride the earth in just a few steps—until he sinned.³³⁰ Other mystical traditions teach that all human souls were in Adam’s soul. Thus, when he fell, the entire human race fell with him. Related to this is the mystical teaching of Rabbi Isaac Luria that “all Israel form a mysterious single body, consisting of Adam’s soul,”³³¹ and in this vein the Encyclopedia of Hasidism states that in Lurianic Kabbalah (i.e., Jewish mysticism based on Luria’s teaching), the exile of Israel and the Shekhina (i.e., the divine Presence) were “interpreted as a consequence of the disaster that overtook the world at the time of Adam’s sin.”³³² Thus, “as a result of original sin (ḥet kadmon) evil entered the world, with disastrous consequences not only for the whole of creation but also for the sphere of Divine being, and the entire process of history is seen as a struggle to restore the fallen world to its pristine perfection.”³³³ That is part of our very own Jewish traditions.

Abraham Cohen, in his widely used compendium Everyman’s Talmud, makes reference to a fascinating account in the Talmud (b. Erubin 13b), stating that for

two and a half years the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel were divided on the following point: The latter maintained that it had been better if man had never been created; while the former maintained that it is better he was created. The count was taken and the majority decided that it would have been better if he had not been created; but since he has been created, let him investigate his (past) actions. Another version is: Let him examine his (present) actions.³³⁴

According to Cohen, “At the root of the discussion was the agreed opinion that man is essentially a sinful creature who is bound during his lifetime to do many deeds which earn for him the condemnation of God.” The question Cohen raises has to do with “whether the Talmud teaches the doctrine of original sin, viz., whether the human being has inherited the guilt incurred by his first parents and in consequence is essentially corrupt in nature.”³³⁵

As to whether human beings “inherit sin”—implying, then, that we are not responsible for the sins we commit—Cohen answers with an emphatic no. However, Cohen states that according to the Talmudic rabbis, man “may be burdened by the consequences of the wrongdoings of his forefathers,” explaining more fully that “the Rabbis subscribed to the view that the sin in the Garden of Eden had repercussions on all subsequent generations.” He notes, “It was the direct cause of death which is the fate of every creature. In the same way [the Rabbis] believed that the sin of the Golden Calf left its taint and affected the destinies of mankind ever since. ‘There is no generation in which there is not an ounce from the sin of the Golden Calf’ (p. Taʿanit 68c).”³³⁶

Also relevant to our discussion is the traditional Jewish teaching that man has a higher and lower nature, a good inclination and an evil inclination.³³⁷ The problem is that all too often the evil inclination wins out!³³⁸ In fact, it was the great Jewish thinker Paul who offered a penetrating insight on the depth of our depravity. He wrote, “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things” (Rom. 2:1). Our very condemnation of evil in others helps to pronounce condemnation on us!

We claim that we are pretty good people, even moral and righteous, judging others as guilty sinners and transgressors. The problem is we do the very same things they do—except we justify those things in our own lives while condemning them in the lives of others.

It is true, of course, that Judaism calls on its own sinning people to reform their ways and become moral and upright through adhering to the Law of God. And it is certain that many Jews do make some kind of turnaround through Torah observance, just as it is true that many others make some kind of change through adherence to a system of religious or moral teaching. But let’s be candid. Many of the changes are cosmetic in nature. After all, how many terrorists, murderers, sexual perverts, and social degenerates have been transformed through Jewish tradition?

Of course, this is not the fault of traditional Judaism. It’s the fault of the human race. We need God to reach down and save us from our sins. That’s why Jesus the Messiah came into this world, and that’s why one of his followers could explain to a community of Jewish believers that “he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them” (Heb. 7:25). Countless millions can attest to the truth of this verse.

I would encourage you once again to look inside yourself and see who you really are. Perhaps you can relate to this New Testament description of unholy human nature in contrast with the holy law of God:

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

Romans 7:14–21

There is only one way out of this condition, only one way to gain a new heart, only one way to experience true freedom from guilt and gain the power to lead a new life, and that way is a person called Jesus the Messiah.³³⁹ When we put our faith in him and ask God to forgive our sins through his death on our behalf, we too die to the things that once enslaved us, overcoming sin through him. And while we will not experience total perfection in this world, at times struggling with the “old nature,” we can already begin to experience a foretaste of the wonderful, holy liberty we will enjoy forever.

This is what Jesus meant when he said to the Jewish men who had put their faith in him: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31–32). The choice is yours. Each of us can deny that we are by nature slaves to sin—although that very denial might well be another manifestation of our pride and self-will—or the truth can set us free.

³²⁰ Aryeh Kaplan’s claim that “Christianity … starts with one idea about man, while Judaism starts with the exact opposite idea of man” (The Real Messiah? 9) is certainly overstated, based on an exaggerated view of the fall (“What sin was so great that it required his [Jesus’] sacrifice? The early Christians answered that this was required to atone for the sin of Adam,” [32]), as if all human culpability were Adam’s and none was our own. More importantly, however, the question is not what Judaism or Christianity teach but rather what do the Hebrew Scriptures say? As will be seen plainly, the Tanakh does not support Kaplan’s position.

³²¹ See Robert Conquest, Reflections on a Ravaged Century (New York: W. W. Norton, 2000).

³²² Notice the use of the Hebrew root sh-h-t (be corrupt; destroy) in Genesis 6:12–13 (I have emphasized all English words derived from the root): “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, ‘I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.’ ” The meaning is that God will destroy the earth and start afresh before we totally destroy everything ourselves!

³²³ By the way, even if you take the story of the flood allegorically and not literally—although I see no compelling reason not to take it literally—the same lesson of human sinfulness is still taught.

³²⁴ In fact, to underscore this point even further, we must realize that when God gave this assessment of the inherent sinfulness of man, the only ones alive at the time were righteous Noah and his family!

³²⁵ Just consider the recaps of our history in biblical sources such as Psalms 78 (up to David), 106, or 107. It is not a pretty picture.

³²⁶ Tragically, in Israel there are “kosher” prostitutes, women who “work” exclusively among the ultra-Orthodox. For a discussion of this unfortunate phenomenon, which is certainly frowned on and rejected by official teaching, see Samuel Heilman, Defenders of the Faith: Inside Ultra-Orthodox Jewry (New York: Schocken, 1992), 106, 327–28, who notes that “a significant number of haredim [referring to ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel] were known to do it [i.e., go to prostitutes] late at night” (327).

³²⁷ In b. Sanhedrin 101a, this verse is cited to refute the view that some people mentioned in the Bible were actually sinless. See also b. Sanhedrin 46b, cited in Urbach, The Sages, 435: “To the query, ‘Do the righteous need atonement?’ the Sages reply, ‘Yea! for it is written, “There is not a righteous man upon the earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes vii 20).’ ” See also Midrash Tehillim, 16:2, cited in ibid., 879, n. 56. The midrash there gives an interesting twist to the verse, “As for the holy ones that are in the earth” (Ps. 16:3), explaining, “for the Holy One, blessed be He, does not call a righteous man ‘holy’ until he is placed in the earth [i.e., in death!]. Why? Because the Evil Inclination vexes him, and (the Lord) puts no trust in him until the day of his death. So, too, Solomon declared, ‘For there is not a righteous man upon earth.…’ ” Although some commentators read this verse differently (namely, that even righteous people are not perfect and still sin), the interpretation most commonly found in the Rabbinic literature is identical to the one cited here.

³²⁸ Here is another point to consider. Judaism teaches that in each generation there are at least thirty-six totally righteous people (Jews or Gentiles), through whose righteousness the world is preserved. (They are called the “lamed-vavnicks,” based on the Hebrew letters for 36, lamed and vav.) However, not only is this questionable based on scriptural precedent (Jeremiah 5; Genesis 6), but it is striking too, since even traditional Judaism must recognize the deep sinfulness of our race if it thinks in terms of only thirty-six righteous!

³²⁹ “Fall of Man,” in Encyclopedia of Jewish Religion, ed. R. J. Werblowsky and G. Wigoder (New York: Adama, 1986), 141. For the Talmudic tradition of Eve’s copulation with the serpent, see b. Shabbat 146a; b. Yevamot 103b; b. Avodah Zarah 22b (“When the serpent went into Eve, he injected contaminating lust into her”); note also Louis Jacobs, Theology in the Responsa (Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975), 49–50, discussing a responsum of Abraham Ibn David (“the mere approach to Sinai was highly significant in that it freed Israel from the taint of ‘original sin’ ”). It is interesting to observe that this tradition claims that it was Mount Sinai that removed the contamination of Eve’s sin from the Jewish people (but not from the Gentiles), although only temporarily (cf. Urbach, The Sages, 428; 169). The New Testament teaches that it was the death of the Messiah on the cross that provided the ultimate (and permanent) source of cleansing of this inherited filth for both Jew and Gentile.

³³⁰ See Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews, 1:59–83.

³³¹ See his Likutey Torah, Taamey HaMitzvot, on Leviticus 19:18, cited in Aryeh Kaplan, Reaching Out, 25. Based on this concept, Luria taught that “all the Jews (collectively) form a single body. Therefore, even if an individual has never committed a particular sin, he should confess it anyway. For if another Jew has committed this sin, it is the same as if he himself had done so.” Thus a Jew praying alone at home should still confess in the plural, “We have sinned.”

³³² See Goldstein, “Shekhinah,” 454.

³³³ “Fall of Man,” Encyclopedia of the Jewish Religion, 141.

³³⁴ Cohen, Everyman’s Talmud, 95.

³³⁵ Ibid., 95–96.

³³⁶ Ibid., 96.

³³⁷ See ibid., 88–93, with the primary Rabbinic references.

³³⁸ Reflecting the traditional view, Cohen notes, “part of human nature is the evil impulse which can be mastered, but all too often takes control and demoralizes” (ibid., 95). For the objection that the law of God is actually easy to keep, see vol. 3, 6.9; for Genesis 4:7, God’s word to Cain about mastering sin, see above, 3.20.

³³⁹ For discussion of Deuteronomy 10:16 and Ezekiel 18:31, which call on God’s people to circumcise their hearts or to get new hearts, see the commentaries of C. F. Keil.

Brown, M. L. (2000). Answering Jewish objections to Jesus, Volume 2: Theological objections (198). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.

Jews don’t believe in original sin or a fall of man. We do not believe the human race is totally sinful.