RMPS - Int2/Higher - World Religions - Judaism - Education Scotland

THE HUMAN CONDITION
The nature of humanity
The story of Creation showed that God has given a blueprint for a happy
life, but man’s desire for independence upsets this existence.
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And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to
dress it and to keep it.
And the Lord God commanded the man saying: ‘Of every tree of the garden
thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die.’
Genesis 2: 15–17
Only after God told man to cultivate, work on the land and look after it,
did He give him permission to eat of its fruits. Man’s most sacred
privilege is freedom of will which is one of the basic principles of
Judaism. Jews are required to learn what God has taught about what is
right and what is wrong; and they are then left to choose between the
alternatives. This includes the ability to obey or disobey God, the ability
to choose between good and evil. So man is responsible for his actions.
This is a very important principle in Judaism. God does not
predetermine whether a man is good or bad.
The one rule that God made was a test of the use that man would make
of his freedom. This shows that man’s spiritual life may require the
subordination of his desires to the law of God. There is a Jewish legend
that man was created to be immortal but as a result of Adam breaking
God’s law the gift of immortality was lost, a punishment that has
subsequently affected all mankind.
Genesis 3 tells of Eve falling into the temptation of the serpent, eating
from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and giving Adam one of its
fruits. When Adam replies to God’s call and says ‘I was afraid, because I
was naked’ (Genesis 3: 10), he commits another offence by making an
excuse for his wrongful behaviour and concealing the truth. Adam
continues to throw the blame upon everybody but himself. First he
blames Eve and then God himself. The Rabbis view this is an example of
‘one sin leading to another sin’, i.e. the consequence of sin is further
evil.
RMPS: WORLD RELIGIONS – JUDAISM (INT 2, H)
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