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Chapter 3 The Aggadic Theology of Sin, Repentance, and Atonement 83 Defining Sin Judaism deals with both the outside world and the inner life of Israel, the holy people. We have now seen how lore and law negotiate the world of the borders and beyond, so defining Israel in relationship with the gentiles in terms of Israel’s relationship to God. That raises the question: What of that relationship when Israel sins? From relationships with outsiders, the narrative now turns to the interior dynamics of Rabbinic theology: the relationship with God of the Israelite and of corporate Israel, which forms a moral entity subject to God’s judgment unique in humanity. Each person individually is subject to divine rule. Israel collectively, not solely Israelites individually , is judged as well. Concerning the matter of sin, repentance, and atonement, the Aggadic exposition produces a cogent narrative. The Halakhic counterpart does the same. But the two tales scarcely intersect. The one—the Aggadah—explains the human condition, reaching back to the narrative of the fall from Eden, and the other, the Halakhah, devotes itself to atoning for sin through the blood-rite of the Temple on the Day of Atonement. Only at the very end—as readers will see in the conclusion of chapter 4—do the two narratives come together in a sublime account of God’s requirement for authentic repentance and true atonement. Sin explains the condition of Israel. The governing theory of Israel, that had Israel kept the Torah from the beginning, holy Israel would never have had any history at all but would have lived in a perfect world at rest and balance and order, is now invoked. There would have been nothing to write down, no history, had Israel kept the Torah. None can imagine a more explicit statement of how the world order is disrupted by sin, and, specifically , sinful attitudes, than the following: Bavli-tractate Nedarim 3:1 I.14ff./22a–b I.18A. Said R. Ada b. R. Hanina, “If the Israelites had not sinned, to them would have been given only the Five Books of the Torah and the book of Joshua alone, which involves the division of the Land of Israel. B. “How come? ‘For much wisdom proceeds from much anger’ (Qoh. 1:18).” Adam ought to have stayed in Eden. With the Torah in hand, Israel, the new Adam, ought to have remained in the land, beyond the reach of time and change, exempt from the events of interesting times. Sin ruined everything, for Adam, for Israel, bringing about the history recorded in Scripture—not a very complicated theodicy. That the theology of the Aggadah spins out a simple but encompassing logic makes the character of its treatment of sin entirely predictable. First, the system must account for imperfection in the world order of justice; sin supplies the reason. Second, it must explain how God remains omnipotent even in the face of imperfection. The cause of sin, humanity’s free will corresponding to God’s, tells why. Third, it must allow for systemic remission. Sin is so defined as to accommodate the possibility of regeneration and restoration. And, finally, sin must be presented to fit into the story of the creation of the perfect world. Defined in the model of the first sin, the one committed by Adam and Eve, representing all humanity, in Eden, sin is an act of rebellion against God. Rebellion takes two forms. As a gesture of omission sin embodies the failure to carry out one’s obligation to God set forth in the Torah. As one of commission, it constitutes an act of defiance. In both cases sin comes about by reason of humanity’s intentionality to reject the will of God, set forth in the Torah. However accomplished, whether through omission or commission , an act becomes sinful because of motivation—the attitude that accompanies the act. That is why humanity is responsible for sin, answerable to God in particular, who may be said to take the matter personally, just as it is meant. The consequence of sin is death for the individual, exile and estrangement for holy Israel, and disruption for the world. That is why sin accounts for much of the flaw of creation. Since sin represents an act of rebellion against God, God has a heavy stake in the matter. It follows that sin in public is worse than sin in private, since in public one’s sin profanes God’s name: 84 Performing...

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