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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