What is Judaism’s view of Sin? | Rapp Report Daily 0079 | Striving for Eternity

Judaism’s View of Human Sinfulness

Welcome to The Rapid Pull, daily edition, where we provide a quick biblical interpretations and applications. This is a ministry of striving for eternity.

As we look today at the Jewish view of man's sinfulness, we see that first off, in Judaism, there is the belief that man pre-existed his body. It is the idea that God created all of the souls of all of humanity at the same day as he did the angels in some time in our past.

And then when we are born, we are given this spiritual soul. Another thing that's very important to understand is that within Judaism, it is the belief that we have two impulses. One good, the other evil.

The Evil Impulse and the Charge of Making God the Author of Sin

And the really important thing here is that it makes God the author of sin, because the evil impulse is what causes us to sin. And the Talmud ends up teaching that God created man with two impulses, one good and the other evil, which makes God the author of sin.

They make excuses for sin, by the way. This is a very interesting quote from the Talmud. If a man sees his evil impulses gaining mastery over him, let him go to a place where he is unknown, put on black clothes, and do what his heart desires, but let him not profane the name publicly.

In other words, as long as no one sees what you're doing, it's okay. They believe that man has a free will, that man can master his sin. And this makes an important distinction that we're going to look at when it comes to salvation.

If you'd like to read more about this, get my book, What Do They Believe? at whatdotheybelieve .com.

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