DEUT1584 Judaism believes that man starts out with a "clean slate" and that he can achieve good in the world by following the precepts of the Torah. Christianity believes that man is basically evil, starting out with original sin. This prevents him from achieving greatness, and thus he must turn to Jesus as a savior to pray on his behalf. Although it is true that the Torah does say that man's heart is evil from his youth (Genesis 8:21) and that, left unchecked, can lead to a path of evil, nevertheless Judaism believes that the path of the Torah is achievable without great difficult. The phrase "It is not in heaven...but it is in your mouth and in your hands to do" [Deuteronomy 30:12-14] is generally interpreted that God did not make the mitzvot too difficult for the average man to accomplish. In addition, one of [the Jewish] daily prayers says that each day a person starts out fresh, with "a pure soul" (The "Elokei Neshamah" prayer at the beginning of the morning service states that each day God returns the soles of the "dead" (sleep is one sixtieth of death). This does not mean that the Jew is automatically forgiven for all past misdeeds. But the Jew has the potential each day to reverse previous actions and begin again. The entire Teshuvah (Repentance) process that is highlighted in the forty-day period culminating with Yom Kippur shows Judaism's belief in the basic goodness in man and in his potential for change. Thus, it is a positive commandment to return to God after sinning [this verse]. In his laws on repentance, Maimonides stresses that basic to being human is the ability to change for good, no matter what one's past (Maimonides, Hilchot Teshuvah, chap.5). This seems to disagree with a Christian philosophy about the nature of man.

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DEUT1586 See [[LEV1118]] Leviticus 26:14 obey DORFFWITO 41

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DEUT1585 See [[DEUT128]] Deuteronomy 4:30 return GATES 3-5

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DEUT1583 All of the prophets commanded repentance, and Israel is redeemed only through repentance (Sanhedrin 97b). And the Torah has assured us that Israel is destined to repent at the end of their exile, whereupon they will be immediately redeemed, as it is written [Devarim 30:1-3).

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DEUT1588 See [[DEUT128]] Deuteronomy 4:30 return GATES 3-5

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DEUT1587 See [[DEUT436]] Deuteronomy 10:16 cut MORINIS 3-4 and [[DEUT465]] MORINIS 289-90

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DEUT1590 See [[DEUT1584]] Deuteronomy 30:2 return AMEMEI 41-2

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DEUT1589 Nevertheless, with all its strength pulling a person to sin, the evil desire can be overcome. Man is given the ability through the Torah to overcome the desire. And lest a Jew might think that keeping the Torah and thereby overcoming the evil desire is too difficult and beyond man's capability, the Torah [this and following verses] specifically reminds us that the Torah is not in the heaven and on the other side of the ocean, that is, beyond man's reach, but it is in man's power to observe it. Almost at the end of the Torah, after listing nearly every commandment, the Torah assures man that the choice is still his [Deuteronomy 30:15, 19], and that he can go in either direction.

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DEUT1591 Moses is addressing the community at the end of his life. His final address asserts that the commandments will preserve the community even without his leadership. The rule of law requires an access to that law, in a merely human place. The COMMANDMENT is available to the community. It requires neither an ascent nor a crossing of the sea because it is placed not far but near. Indeed, when the text asserts that the word is IN YOUR MOUTH, we cannot but think both of the performance of readers and declaimers, who find this word in their mouth, and also of Levinas’ text where he claimed that the commandment came out of the mouth of the one commanded. The speech itself serves as a transition of authority from the leader to the community, who readily can speak the commandments. [R.] Joshua cites it [Baba Metsia 59b - AJL], in the simplest sense, to say that the rulings have to be made within the community and not by a heavenly voice. But the deeper issue is precisely the insistence that the text which he quotes is a text about citation and re-citation: a text that was constructed to transfer authority for legal reasoning to the community. The greatest revelation from heaven is the injunction to cite and interpret the law.

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DEUT1593 See [[DEUT58]] Deuteronomy 4:6 wisdom AGUS 12-3

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