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Jewish World Review June 29, 1999 / 15 Tamuz, 5759
SIN IS A WORD that sits uncomfortably on the tongues of many these days. We think of robbery as a crime; so
too assault -- whereas the thought that they might be sins strikes us as quaint. Yet in Jewish terms, that is precisely what they
are -- as, indeed, are working on the Sabbath day, eating a ham sandwich and not fulfilling other religious obligations.
So what exactly is a sin? And does the notion have any real meaning in today's world?
Simply put, sin is the opposite of mitzvah. To do a mitzvah is to fulfil G-d's will; not to fulfil G-d's will or, worse, to actively
violate it, is sin.
Not all sins are the same and both the halachic and ethical literature distinguish between different grades. Most serious are
mezid sins, those committed knowingly. However, even here the halachah draws a distinction between sins carried out lehachis, as deliberate acts of rebellion (literally 'to annoy G-d'), and those which are committed leteavon, out of habit or enjoyment. For example, a Jew who eats a pork pot pie because he wants to make a statement is eating it lehachis. His
neighbor who just loves pork pies and finds them hard to resist may be doing the same action, but his sin is leteavon. The
latter is treated far more leniently.
The least serious category is onnes, things a person does because they had no choice. These are usually not treated as sins at all. No one could say that a person put to work on Shabbat in a Nazi labor camp was committing a sin! Nonetheless, some
forms of onnes are frowned upon, especially those which people bring upon themselves. A person who misses prayers
because he was drunk is in a category of onnes as one may not pray in a drunken state. Even so, it is self induced onnes and we may reasonably disapprove of him getting himself into that state in the first place.
Some actions, while not sins in themselves, are forbidden because others may misconstrue them. This concept is called maris
ha'ayin --- the way it appears. A person going into a shop on Shabbat to look around would be guilty of maris ha'ayin. They have not violated the Sabbath, but someone seeing them may assume that buying is permissible on Shabbat.
The most serious sins are those which involve chillul hashem, bringing Judaism -- and, by implication, G-d -- into disrepute. A
benefits swindle is wrong irrespective of who perpetrates it. But it is far worse when carried out by someone with an
obviously Jewish name!
The Torah lays down a number of punishments for sins, ranging from fines through lashes to execution. In Jewish thinking
these were seen not only as punitive measures but also as a means of obtaining atonement --- a crucial distinction between
Jewish and secular conceptions of wrongdoing. For this reason, instead of punishment, or sometimes in addition to it, the
wrongdoer was required to bring an offering to the temple. To us, these punishments serve to indicate the relative severity of
any specific sin.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, one of the foremost Jewish thinkers of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,
illustrated this idea with an analogy of a rope woven from 613 strands - 613 being the number of mitzvas in the Torah. The
rope symbolises each individual's attachment to G-d. To sin is to sever one of the strands, hence weakening one's
relationship with the divine.
This opens up a whole new dimension of understanding. Each Jew, by virtue of being a Jew, has a direct relationship with
G-d. There is nothing we need to do to create that. It is like being born with a spiritual umbilical cord --- a rope of 613
strands. Performing mitzvas, therefore, is consistent with a Jew's natural state and maintains our mitzvas maintain and
strengthen our relationship. Sin, on the other hand, is unnatural --- a deviation from our own reality.
For many Jews today, accepting such a concept would require a total realignment of one's self-understanding. But this is not
impossible. Indeed, the Jewish ethical works speak at length of teshuvah --- often translated repentance but, more accurately, returning to what one really is. They say that when someone does make that turn-about, even their mezid sins are turned into meritorious deeds since, if not for the sin, the person would never have come to find their relationship with G-d.
Sin is never condonable, but in Jewish thinking it is
Contemplating the 's'-word
By Rabbi Arye Forta
Less serious than mezid are shogeig sins -- those committed unwittingly -- for example, a person hoeing his garden on the Sabbath because he forgot it was Shabbat or because he thought that kind of work was permissible.
The contradistinction between mitzvah and sin affords us a further insight. Doing a mitzvah -- whether laying tefillin or
providing food for a hungry person -- is way of connecting with G-d. Indeed, the term mitzvah is related to a root meaning
'attachment'. To sin is to disengage from G-d, as Isaiah put it, 'Your sins interpose between you and your G-d' (Isaiah 59:2).
JWR contributor Rabbi Arye Forta is a London-based Jewish educator.
2/24/99: To do the work of angels
1/18/99: Making a sefer Torah of oneself