GEN865 Our duty as Jews is clear: to hallow God before all men by doing good. To act otherwise, is to profane the conception of Jewish divinity. Judaism has set its face sternly against any manifestation of extremism, whether religious asceticism or pagan hedonism. Any lip-service to a cause was denounced, and a formal action when divorced from moral content received the lash of condemnation. Our prayers were called by the Rabbis “the service of the heart” (avodah she’ballev). Sotah 31a.  Torah, wrongly translated by the Greeks as nomos (Law), literally means ethical teaching upon all the relations of life. To do one pious act out of love for God was considered more meritorious than to perform many out of fear, declared one Rabbi. Similarly, it is not the number of precepts a Jews fulfills that matters as much as how he performs them. Berachot 5b   The Torah is clear upon the responsibilities that devolve upon the Jewish life. [this verse; Jeremiah 31:33] Man is not born a sinner; he descends to that state of his own volition. He can ascend again to the Godly life by his resolve to break from evil. “Behold, this only have I found that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” Ecclesiastes 7:29 LEHRMAN 171-2