GEN476 Because free will is given, sin is inevitable, and repentance is available.  “There is no person who does not sin” (1 Kings 8:46; 2 Chronicles 6:36).  However, as God informs Cain, “Sin couches at the door … yet you can be its master” [this verse].  According to a rabbinic legend, “When Cain went forth [after killing Abel], Adam met him and asked: What happened at your trial [for killing Abel]? Cain answered: I repented and was pardoned. When Adam heard this he slapped himself on the face, and said to Cain: So great is the power of repentance, and I did not know it! Leviticus Rabbah, chap. 10, sec. 5.  As Maimonides writes, were an individual to believe that there were no remedy for sin, “he would persist in his error and sometimes perhaps disobey even more because of the fact that no stratagem remains at his disposal.  If, however, he believes in repentance, he can correct himself and return to a better and more perfect state than the one he was in before he sinned” Genesis Rabbah, bk. 3, ch. 36, 540). SHER20C 153-4