Confronting guilt in the aftermath of sin or moral failure is a defining pillar of our religious identity.
Accepting responsibility and atoning for our errors should be a cathartic moment and should foster profound spiritual growth. By contrast, denying responsibility and evading ownership of sin often leads to recidivism and a deepening moral decline.
The modern world has waged an unrelenting campaign to erase guilt from our emotional landscape, discouraging feelings of personal responsibility while urging us to externalize blame by shifting it to others.
Guilt is indispensable for moral growth and self-improvement. It serves as the quiet but insistent voice of a healthy conscience, guiding us toward accountability, repentance, and transformation.
For this reason, the Torah’s description of the korban chatat, or sin offering, is profoundly symbolic. It captures a delicate “guilty” moment in the spiritual life of a religious soul. The words the Torah uses to describe this moment and this sacrifice are iconic, imparting lessons about moral accountability and the process of recovery from sin.
Surprisingly, the Torah introduces the section discussing sin offerings with the Hebrew word nefesh, typically referring to our souls. One might assume that the section describing sin would begin with ish or adam, terms that reflect our physical and material bodies, which are responsible for our desires and our sins.
Evidently, as the Midrash comments, sin is not merely a product of our physical bodies and fleshly desires. Every sin carries a psychological undercurrent, rooted in our psyche and souls. That underlying psychological need manifests itself through a physical sin.
Sin is born from the fusion of body and soul, shaped by physical desires and the deeper currents of emotional insecurities and fears. It is not merely a lapse of the flesh but a reflection of the psyche, a struggle that unfolds within the entirety of a human being. To underscore the integrated nature of sin, the Torah attributes transgression not only to the body but also to the soul.
Moral improvement and recovery from sin require that we understand the psychological roots of our shortcomings. If we continue to compartmentalize and assign blame solely to our physical desires, we only address the symptoms of sin, not the root cause. Moral and religious growth demands that we dig deeper, unearthing the psychological foundations of our behavior.
Why do we act this way? Why do we find ourselves trapped in cycles of behavior that ultimately leave us frustrated, ashamed, and diminished? What unseen forces within our souls draw us back to the toxic behavior we seek to escape?
JUST AS we do not separate body from soul when examining the roots of sin, we likewise avoid such divisions when reflecting upon our broader religious experience. Life unfolds as a seamless whole – our moments of spiritual inspiration and our religious struggles are woven into a single, unified existence.
God fused our immortal souls with our temporary and transient physical bodies, desiring that we experience life as a whole rather than fragmenting it into separate spheres of the spiritual and the material.
A religious person strives to stand before God in wholeness, in every moment, with every facet of his being. The tone of our experiences may shift – prayer and study carry a different resonance than the mundane rhythms of daily life – but we are always standing before Him, always striving to live in accordance with His will.
We must be the same person in the synagogue as we are in the workplace, the same person who studies Torah as the one who strives to be a devoted family member. There are no pauses in this mission, no intermissions from religious life.
Our commitment is unwavering, weaving through every role we embrace and every moment we live, where body and soul unite as one.
Rejection of dividing life into separate realms
Judaism adamantly rejects dividing life into separate realms. This doctrine of splitting existence between body and soul or distinguishing between religious and non-religious moments is known as dualism – a philosophy foreign to Jewish thought.
Instead, Judaism embraces a holistic vision, in which every aspect of life is intertwined and integrated, and every moment is an opportunity for divine connection.
Dualistic cultures not only divide human experience into separate realms but also interpret history through a dualistic lens. The most popular and dangerous expression of dualism divides history into forces of good and evil, or light and darkness. This belief offers a simplistic answer to the perennial challenge of evil: How could an all-powerful and compassionate God permit its existence?
Dualism resolves this dilemma by proposing that evil is an autonomous force, inherently embedded within creation, locked in an unending struggle against the forces of good.
Tragically, throughout history this stark division between forces of good and evil has fueled the demonization of Jews and unleashed relentless violence against us. Branded as the embodiment of darkness, we became convenient scapegoats for humanity’s suffering. After all, if suffering and misfortune exist, there must be a hidden culprit – and our distinct customs and cultural separateness made us an easy target.
This demonization served as a gruesome justification for the most barbaric acts against our people. By eradicating Jews – the so-called source of evil – our enemies convinced themselves they were serving a higher moral cause. No cruelty was too extreme, no atrocity too heinous.
Even today, a modern version of this ancient slander persists. Once again, we are cast as the ultimate historical villains, representing all the alleged sins of Western civilization – from colonialism to apartheid to genocide. The script has changed, but the underlying doctrine of demonization and hatred remains the same.
WE COMPLETELY and utterly reject any notion of hidden forces of evil and darkness.
Everything in this world was created by God, and every human being was fashioned in His image. People possess free will – the divine gift of moral choice. God entrusted humanity with this freedom, allowing each individual to choose between right and wrong, between light and dark.
With this personal agency, some bring goodness and light into the world, while others unleash cruelty and suffering.
Individuals or societies, however wicked, do not embody some mythical force of darkness. There is no larger a cosmic force fueling their assault upon humanity and virtue. They are simply evil people and immoral cultures – nothing more. They may speak in the name of religion or ideology, but in truth they represent only barbarity and cruelty. They have abused the gift of free will and moral conscience to vandalize God’s world and strike humanity.
It is both our moral duty and historical calling to stand against evil and defeat it. God desires the triumph of justice, and, ultimately, He will ensure that wickedness is vanquished from the world.
There is no grand narrative of battling forces of light and darkness, of good versus evil. There is only one force – God’s will – and in the end, it will prevail, triumphant and eternal. We live life as a unified whole, indivisible in our essence. One God created all things, and He desires that we live our lives as one.
When people, cultures, or religions undermine the world He created, He expects us to rise up and defeat them.
The writer, a rabbi at the hesder Yeshivat Har Etzion/Gush, was ordained by Yeshiva University and has an English literature MA from the City University of New York. His most recent book, To be Holy but Human: Reflections upon my Rebbe, Rav Yehuda Amital (Kodesh), is available in bookstores and at www.mtaraginbooks.com.