The Auckland Hebrew Congregation

We’re zeitgeist ethicists - caught up with the morality and values of the age. Biblical abomination is endorsed, while principled religious argument is often seen as lacking in substance. While Voltaire once argued that "If there wasn’t a G-d we would need to invent Him", today’s pop-philosophy holds "that we did invent G-d and we shouldn’t have done."

There are very many wrongs. And things can be wrong in many different ways. The word, "sin" suggests a wrong against G-d, religious or moral law. For sure, to steal is an offence against the victim, a trespass to property, an offence against the norms which enable society to progress decently from day to day - but to define it as a "sin" recognises that the owner has a moral entitlement to his property, that the thief has none - or that G-d’s world order is offended by the perpetrator’s actions.

When the Bible prohibits murder as a violation of the sanctity of life - Jewish Law allows self-defence at the expense of another - because "Ain lo damim" The aggressor’s life has lost its spiritual value. Life is life. Blood is blood. On the microscopic or nanoscopic level, we might all be the same. But spiritual worth cannot be calibrated by scientific instruments.

The Talmud acknowledges the reality that one can have a happily sinful society, where no-one feels hurt - but that spiritual depravity is rife. Recent history has shown how apparently cultured and advanced societies can inflict the worst excesses of barbarity - even justifying genocide on scientific and medical grounds. The biblical injunction to listen to wise religious counsel rather than each individual doing what is right in his own eyes is testament to our own fallibility as judges of right and wrong.

The Jewish tradition distinguishes three types or levels of transgression - each, separately categorised as "sinful." There are, of course, the wrongs we do, driven by desire and the evil inclination - we succumb to temptation and mute the alarm bells of our conscience. Boy are we good and inventive as we rationalise each eventuality and justify our actions - see it, wannit, gottagetit is mythologised into an entitlement - play as we might with "who does it really hurt? It’s for the best… Who will ever know? or whatever" we have already decided in our mind to ignore the seeing eye above.

To one extreme of this sinful activity, Judaism identifies the wilful violation - not in response to temptation or desire but simply to challenge the Almighty. The pleasure is not in the taking or stealing - but the knowledge that G-d disapproves. It could be a murder of a random innocent - just to take a life. It could be the taking of a prayer book into a toilet - just to violate the tapu or taboo. There’s no gain beyond celestial censure. The baiting of the religious leadership and the faithful; the denigration of their sacred literature and liturgy…. vocal and provocative professions of atheism - or the denial of the concept of sin, often belong in this realm.

And then we have the other extreme and the third category. Judaism recognises as sinful, wrongful acts with no evil intent. In jurisprudence, we only convict if there is both actus reus & mens rea - a wrongful deed with the guilty intent. From the Jewish perspective, if I break the Sabbath because I woke up and thought it was Wednesday and not Saturday - or I did not know that lighting a match on Saturday was a violation of Shabbat - in either case, I have sinned, I must confess and can atone.

This third category, the lack of evil intent, the lack of knowledge is perforce the lightest - but nonetheless constitutes "sin". Why? Because we have upset what G-d deems as spiritually right and appropriate - and we should not just shrug it off and say "bygones" - let’s draw a line in the sand and start over. We should acknowledge our own inadequacy, our lack of knowledge or our negligence and we should build ourselves up into better people. We should exercise more care or more thought in what we do or do not do - we should be more aware of G-d.

It’s out there and there’s lots of it. My children face more exposure to more socially acceptable vices than I ever did. And I face more than my parents. On the other hand, they grew up in a world where genocide was legitimised, and their parents in a world of slavery.

To our generation’s credit - we now address questions about preserving the environment, eco-sensitivity, the rights of minorities and ethnic identities, we have a greater global social conscience than our ancestors.

What was thought acceptable to bygone eras is acknowledged to have been wrong. And to some measure, we have relented and repented.

I am concerned - as are many of us, at the assault on family, the sanctity of marriage, the cheapening of sexuality and pervasiveness of promiscuity.

Most of the protagonists don’t offend because they know it is sinful. They don’t understand that such wrongs exist or that such mores are wrong. Inasmuch as we do ever judge - we must distinguish between the sin and the sinner. The judgment for the wanton sin is necessarily harsher than the accidental infraction. It is inappropriate to demonise the perpetrator for lack of spiritual knowledge or sensitivity. That is the implication of asking G-d, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do."

To my mind, the thumping of the scriptures and the denunciation of sacrilege might assuage my sense of outrage but it does not address our real needs. I adhere to my traditional values - the easy and the scarcely comprehensible, because I value the underpinning values. And I would like to raise my children to do the same.

A young boy was promised a kopek if he could answer the question "where is G-d." Quick as a flash, he offered two kopeks if the questioner could tell him where G-d was not. G-d is everywhere - but He is found wherever we let Him in.

We do not serve Him by becoming the adversarial censors of contemporary living. We should become the educators and facilitators of spiritual sensitivity - so that others affirm and value our values. So that they, and not us will come ask, "Whatever happened to Sin?"