GEN1264 The fact that Judaism endows man with the power to discern between that which is right and that which is wrong—regarding him as a being blessed with the will to choose one and avoid the other—must be borne in mind when we consider the ethical doctrines of antiquity.  The conscious effort to improve our natures, expressed in philosophic vocabulary as meliorism, best expresses the nature of Jewish Ethics.   In this, our teachings come nearest to the views expressed by Immanuel Kant, who, perhaps more than any other thinker, has left his stamp upon modern ethical thought.   His main stress was that all sense of conscious purpose must be altogether eliminated from the equation of moral conduct.   This insistence is expressed by our sages in one word—lishmah—which means that good deeds must be done not for some temporal or material reward, but should be determined only by the fact that their practice is an earnest of our obedience to the will of God, as well as of our love for our fellow-beings.  The moral and the divine “ought” is the categorical imperative.   Judaism fills this categorical imperative with positive conduct by holding before man a divine network of six hundred and thirteen commandments, which may best be described as precision tools for the carving of noble characters.  The fulfillment of these precepts is made possible by climbing the many rungs on the ladder of perfection, from the apex of which the Messianic Kingdom will loom into sight. Jewish Ethics are the realization of Jacob’s dream [this verse].   LEHRMAN 19-20