罪的解释

**诚之按﹕这是我目前不成熟的看法，参考了以下三篇犹太人对罪的解释（见附录）以及之前转过的“A Jewish view of Satan”﹐供大家批评。

希伯来文字中的罪，比较重的是averah (aveira) -字面意义是the crossing of a line﹐基督教指的罪-sin, 通常就是指此，在希腊文中被翻译成hamartia，原义是missing the target﹐因此，基督教（包括犹太教）所指的罪的意义，就是背离上帝（transgression of God's will﹔或如约壹3:4所说“违背律法，就是罪”）﹔罪，就是人逾越了与上帝之间的界线（夏娃违背了上帝的第一条命令是最早的一件），其后果就是破坏了人与上帝的关系。上帝造了人，同时给了人自由意志去选择是否要遵从上帝的话﹔如果人选择不遵守，就产生了罪，苦难就是罪的结果。所以罪恶并不是上帝造出来的，而是人选择的结果。人选择违背上帝的话，就要因此受到折磨。

犹太教认为人出生时是洁净的clean state，并没有犯罪的倾向evil inclination, 但是因为人不是完美的，都会犯错，因此都还是罪人。而基督教认为人生下来就是有罪性（sinful nature）的（从亚当遗传下来的﹖透过基因﹖），这是很大的差别。

关于自由意志，有一个学者Jonathan Edwards提出了natural ability和 moral ability的解释。大意是说，上帝造人，给了人心智与意志选择去做对的事，但是如果缺乏了讨神喜悦的欲望（desire），就无法做到造物主对人的要求。人所以缺少讨神喜悦的心，是因为人受到罪的捆绑，是堕落的（意思就是与神敌对、疏远的状态），因此不能明白、完成神对我们的要求。基督教也认为，罪是来自撒旦的引诱，而撒旦是堕落的天使长，具有反抗神的能力，可以捆绑人。

另外，犹太人认为Satan是个challenger，a hinder，是充份服从上帝旨意的天使（犹太人认为上帝所造的一切都是完美的，因此他们反对基督教所谓天使会堕落的说法），他的工作是要敦促我们在此生努力地工作（主要的工作内容是fight with the temptation not to do what we are supposed to do），学会用我们的自由意志，讨神的喜悦，与神建立灵里的关系，以便在将来的世界充分享受与神同在的喜悦与丰富。这与基督教对撒旦的看法也有很大的区别。

另外摘一句话提醒自己： "Aveira goreres aveira"（One sin leads to another.） by saying that after repeatedly doing a given sin, it becomes part of one's nature, so that no conscious decision is required next time the situation arises.

附录1﹕
Sin
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Sin is a concept used primarily in the Abrahamic religions describing a transgression against the will of God, and often held to require repentance and penance; in some theologies it may also entail the risk of ????ation.

Jewish views of sin
Judaism regards the violation of mitzvot (divine commandments) to be a sin. Judaism uses this term to include violations of Jewish law that are not necessarily a lapse in morality. Judaism holds it as given that all people sin at various points in their lives, and hold that God always tempers justice with mercy.

The generic Hebrew word for any kind of sin is aveira.

Based on the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) Judaism describes three levels of sin.
·Pesha - An intentional sin; an action committed in deliberate defiance of God;
·Ovon - This is a sin of lust or uncontrollable emotion. It is a sin done knowingly, but not done to defy God;
·Cheit - This is an unintentional sin.
Judaism holds that no human being is perfect, and all people have sinned many times. However a state of sin does not condemn a person to ????ation; only one or two truly grievous sins lead to anything approaching the Christian hot hell.

The Biblical and rabbinic conception of God is that of a Creator who tempers justice with mercy. Based on the views of Rabbeinu Tam in the Babylonian Talmud (tractate Rosh HaShanah 17b), Judaism describes God as having thirteen attributes of mercy:
1.God is merciful before someone sins, even though God knows that a person is capable of sin.
2.God is merciful to a sinner even after the person has sinned.
3.God represents the power to be merciful even in areas that a human would not expect or deserve.
4.God is compassionate, and eases the punishment of the guilty.
5.God is gracious even to those who are not deserving.
6.God is slow to anger.
7.God is abundant in kindness.
8.God is a god of truth, thus we can count on God's promises to forgive repentent sinners.
9.God guarantees kindness to future generations, as the deeds of the righteous patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) have benefits to all their descendants.
10.God forgives intentional sins if the sinner repents.
11.God forgives a deliberate angering of Him if the sinner repents.
12.God repents sins that are committed in error.
13.God wipes away the sins away from those who repent.

As we are commanded in imitatio Dei, emulating God, our sages are to take these attributes into account in deciding Jewish law and its contemporary application.

The Jewish view of atoning for sins
A classical rabbinic work, Midrash Avot de Rabbi Natan, states:
One time, when Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai was walking in Jerusalem with Rabbi Yehosua, they arrived at where the Temple in Jerusalem now stood in ruins. "Woe to us" cried Rabbi Yehosua, "for this house where atonement was made for Israel's sins now lies in ruins!" Answered Rabban Yochanan, "We have another, equally important source of atonement, the practice of gemilut hasadim (loving kindness), as it is stated 'I desire loving kindness and not sacrifice'".

The Babylonian Talmud teaches that "Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Eleazar both explain that as long as the Temple stood, the altar atoned for Israel, but now, one's table atones [when the poor are invited as guests]." (Tractate Berachot, 55a.)

The traditional liturgy of the Days of Awe (the High Holy Days; i.e. Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur) states that prayer, repentence and tzedakah (charitable actions) are how one atones for sin.

Christian views of sin
There is a difference among Christians concerning the use of the word "sin". Protestants use it primarily for what they see as humanity's inherently sinful nature, and only secondarily to actual instances of sin. Catholics by contrast reserve the word only for actual instances of sin, calling the sinful nature of humans "concupiscence". One Greek word in the New Testament that is often translated "sin" is hamartia, which literally means missing the target. Catholics distinguish between venial sin, which warrants only temporal punishment in Purgatory, and mortal sin, which warrants eternal punishment in Hell.

Original sin - Most denominations of Christianity interpret the Garden of Eden story in Genesis in terms of the fall of man. Adam and Eve's disobedience was the first sin ever committed, and their original sin (or the effects of their sin) is passed on to their descendants and is a primary reason that people must be born again and gain salvation.

In Western Christianity, sin is often viewed as a legal infraction or contract violation, and so salvation is also tends to be viewed in legal terms. In Eastern Christianity, sin is more often viewed in terms of its effects on relationships, both among people and between people and God. Consequently, salvation is viewed more in terms of reconciliation and vastly improved relationships. These two perspectives are not mutually exclusive, but merely reflect different emphases in thinking and teaching.

One theological tenet gaining currency among Protestant Evangelicals and Fundamentalists is that original sin resulted in imperfections at the genetic level. This seems to be an attempt to incorporate some findings from science into what has been called Creation science. This claim is widely regarded as pseudo-science by scientists. It is rejected as theologically wrong by Catholics, liberal Protestants, and all non-Christians.

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附录2﹕Judaism ranks sins from major to minor

http://www.jewishsf.com/bk990910/sfsins.shtml
ANN MOLINE
Bulletin Correspondent

The High Holy Days are often described as the time to cast away sins and to seek repentance. The only problem with this definition is the context in which it might be understood.

Many Jewish Americans do not have an accurate concept of sin in the Jewish tradition. When Jews think of sin, they have a tendency to think about Catholic confessionals or church services in which congregants declare they were born as sinners and will die the same way.

But Jewish tradition says everyone is born with a clean slate. That is, no one is born a sinner, as Christian tradition suggests.

Jews are expected to always reach toward a perfect standard of righteousness, as expressed in Leviticus: "Tzedek, tzedek tirdof" (Righteousness, righteousness shall you pursue).

When Jews do something wrong, it may not be that the wrong itself is the source of the sin. Rather, it is the missed opportunity to do something right.
In Hebrew, this missed opportunity is called a chet. Often translated simply as "sin," the word is actually an archery term for a missed shot.

"So, chet, rather than being a sin as we know it from Christian tradition, should be thought of as missing the mark -- like an archer who misses the bull's eye of a target," said Ron Wolfson, director of the Whizin Institute for Jewish Family Education in Los Angeles and a vice president of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles.

Two other categories of sin are considered more grievous than a chet.

An aveira, or the crossing of a line, is a conscious action. It is purposely crossing the line between appropriate and inappropriate behavior.
An avon, the most serious category of sin, is an abomination such as idolatry and murder. Committing an avon means that one knows going into the action that it is the wrong thing to do.

Regardless of the type, all sins represent a distancing from God or from godliness.

In order to atone for the sin, a Jew must turn back from the distancing. Atonement is an action, rather than a state of being. This action of repenting is called teshuvah -- literally, turning back.

Yom Kippur is associated with fasting. But even the prophet Isaiah, whose words are read on Yom Kippur, seems to understand that repentance is the essence of the day.

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附录3﹕Sin Is Not What It Seems
http://www.aish.com/literacy/judaism123/Sin_Is_Not_What_It_Seems.asp
by Rabbi Shmuel Silinsky

The word "sin" has no connection with endless guilt and eternal ????ation. But it does have a lot to do with archery.

One of the most commonly mistranslated Hebrew words is chait, which we usually see translated as "sin."
Sin is one of those words we tend to find repellant. Many of us grew up in non-Jewish societies and as a result of that influence we think of sin as some horrible evil, connected with endless guilt, eternal ????ation and a host of other associations that are equally unpalatable.

Does chait really mean that?
No.

The meaning of the word is usually defined by the context of how it is used. So for example, In the Book of Judges (20:16), slingers from the tribe of Benjamin are described as being so good with their weapon that they can "aim at a hair and not chait."

Could this mean to "aim at a hair and not sin"? It makes no sense. Obviously the text means to aim at a hair and not "miss," i.e. not to hit off target.
Another example is in the Book of Kings I (1:21). King David is on his death bed and his wife, Bathsheba, comes to him and says, "If Solomon does not become king after you then Solomon and I will be chataim." Solomon and Bathsheba will be sinners? It means that Solomon and Bathsheba will not reach their potential, will not make the grade, will not measure up.

A third example: The Hebrew for one of the many sacrificial offering is chatot, from the same root as the word chait. This offering -- called in English a "sin offering" -- can only be brought for something done unintentionally.In fact, if a person purposely committed a violation, he is forbidden to bring a chatot. It is truly a "mistake offering" rather than a "sin offering."

"Off target," "not reaching the mark," "mistake," and "unintentional" are all indications that the word chait does not mean "sin."

A more accurate translation of the Hebrew chait is "error" or "mistake."
People don't "sin." People make mistakes. After all, we are human. And the Jewish way is to learn from our mistakes. We apologize, clean up any mess, and move on with life.

Of course, there can be real ramifications to our mistakes.
If a glass of milk is dropped, the milk is gone and the glass is shattered. So what do we do?

We deal with the fallout and fix what we can. Our amends may include a sincere apology, removing the shards, getting the carpet cleaned and buying a new bottle of milk. But we do not become steeped in guilt over our "sin."
Note that there are other words in Hebrew which are also mistranslated as "sin," but which convey a more serious misdeed than an error.To cite two examples: avon, refers to willful, knowing transgression of God's law where one's desires get the upper hand; pesha, refers to a willful transgression done specifically to spite God.

However, the most common word translated as "sin" is chait. The "sin" of Adam and Eve was chait, a mistake.

So many of the concepts we may have in our minds may really not be Jewish at all. Taking a fresh look can give us great insights and clarity -- and tips to make our lives more meaningful.
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