GEN475 [One of the features of the ethic of Torah that makes it transformative and uniquely sustainable over time …] is the emphasis the Torah places on personal and collective freedom. This too flows from the logic of monotheism. The gods of the ancient world were part of nature. They were more powerful than humans and they did not die, but they existed within the natural world. God of the Torah transcends nature because He created nature as a free active will. Because God is free and endowed us with His image, we too are free. This gift of freedom defines the human drama as set out in the early chapters of Genesis because it meant, fatefully, that humans could disobey God. Adam and Eve, the first humans, disobey the first command. Cain, the first human child, became the first murderer. By the time of Noah the world was full of violence. God “Regretted that He had made human beings on the earth, and His heart was deeply troubled” Genesis 6:6. Despite this, there is no suggestion anywhere in Tanakh [i.e., the Hebrew Bible – AJL] that God ever considered taking back the gift of freedom. Implicit in the Torah is the radical idea that the free God seeks the free worship of free human beings. Freedom is one of the fundamental principles of Jewish faith. Rambam [i.e., Maimonides-AJL] codifies it as such. Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Teshuva 5:3. We are each capable he said, of becoming as righteous as Moses or as wicked as Jeroboam. The point is made both at the beginning and end of the Torah. At the beginning it is contained in a short speech by God to Cain, who He knows is in the grip of anger and is about to commit an act of violence [this and previous verses].  In other words: it is human nature to be subject to deep-seated drives that may, at times, be necessary for survival but at others are dysfunctional and destructive. We have to be able to control our passions. As Freud said, civilization is marked by the ability to defer the gratification of instinct. Much of Torah law is dedicated to inculcating this. At the end of the Torah, Moses, having recapitulated the history of the Israelites, poses a supreme choice: “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, that you and your children may live” Deuteronomy 30:19. Individually and collectively we are free to choose between good and evil and our fate is determined by our choices. We are moral agents, and therefore responsible and called to account for what we do. This emphasis on freedom is one of the defining characteristics of Judaism. Most other civilizations have to some extent denied it. We are, thought the Greeks, subject to fate and forces beyond our control. That is the basis of Greek tragedy. We are, said Paul, in the grip of sin, still scarred by the disobedience of the first humans. Therefore we need someone else’s sacrificial act to atone for us. The Jewish belief that we are untainted by original sin, and capable of choosing between good and evil without special divine help, is not shared by all forms of Christianity, where it is known as the Pelagian heresy. Note that Judaism does not take freedom for granted. It is not easy at either the individual or collective level. As God said to Cain, sin is crouching at the door and desires to dominate us [this verse].  In neuro-scientific terms, the pre-frontal cortex allows us to understand the consequences of our actions, and thus choose the good, but the limbic system-faster and more powerful-means that we are often in the grip of strong emotion. Hence the importance of the life of self-discipline engendered by the commands. Hence also the centrality of the family as the matrix of moral education.  God chose Abraham, the Torah tells us,” so that he will instruct his children and his household after him that they may keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right in just” Genesis 18:19 It takes strong families, cohesive communities, and a shared moral code to yield individuals with the strength to be free. The same is true at the collective level. The entire burden of the Torah in the beginning of Exodus to the end of Deuteronomy is about what it is to create a free society, as opposed to the slavery the Israelites experienced into Egypt. "There is nothing more arduous than the apprenticeship of liberty,” said Alexis to Tocqueville. Democracy in America (New York: Vintage Books, 1954), 1:256. God, who created the universe and freedom, wants humankind, to whom He gave the gift of choice, to create a social universe where all can live in liberty. SACKS xxi-xxiii