PRECEPTS RELATING TO REPENTANCE.

CHAPTER V.

FREE-WILL' is granted to every man. If he desire to incline towards the good way, and to become a righteous man, he has the power2 [to do so]; and if he desire to incline towards the wicked way, and to become a wicked man, he has [also] the power [to do so]. This is what is written in the law: Behold! the man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil, (Gen. iii. 22.); by which it was meant to express [this]: Behold! the human race are become unique (matchless) in this world; inasmuch as there is not another kind [of living creatures] equal to them in this respect3, [namely]

1 leave, permission, or grant, from, which is to be met with only once in the whole of the Old Testament, in

-accord כרשיון כורש מלך פרס ,namely רשיון the shape of

ing to the grant of Cyrus king of Persia, (Ezra iii. 7). The Rabbins however use the word promiscuously as denoting power, faculty, control, licence, liberty, free-choice, freeagency and free-will.

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3 y

literally: the power or faculty is in his hand. literally in this matter.

:

in knowing by itself, by its own knowledge and by its own reflection', [what is] good and [what is] evil; and moreover [in being able] to do all that it wishes, without there being any one to prevent it from doing [that which is] good or [that which is] evil; and now this being so: Lest he put forth his hand, &c. (Gen. iii. 22).

II. Give no room in your minds to that which is asserted by the fools belonging to the [other] nations of the world, and [also] by the greater part of the uninformed men among the Israelites [themselves], [namely]: that the Holy One, blessed be He! decrees that a man, from his birth, should be either a righteous man or a wicked man. The fact is by no means so; but [on the contrary] every man is fit to be, as righteous [a man] as Moses, our Rabbi [was], or as wicked [a man] as Jeroboam' [was]; a wise man or a fool; a charitable man or a cruel man; a miser or a liberal man; and so it is

4 literally: and by his [own] thought.

5

17" literally: and that there [should] be none to impede its hand.

6 Lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.

7.

אל יעבור במחשבתך דבר זה שאומרים טפשי

literally: let not pass over thy thought that thing

which the fools of the nations of the world say.

literally : from the beginning of his being מתחלת ברייתו 8

created.

9 See page 245, Note 7.

with regard to all other dispositions. Moreover there is no one who compels, determines, or attracts him, to [proceed in] either of the two ways (i. e. the good or the wicked way); but it is he (the man) himself, who by his own knowledge inclines towards the way which he likes [best]. This is what Jeremiah said: Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good, (Lam. iii. 38.); meaning, that the Creator does not decree that a man should be either good or wicked.

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III. But now this being so, it follows that the sinner himself is the cause of his own ruin;. it therefore befits him to weep and lament over his sin, and [to grieve] for having done this to his own soul, by dealing so wickedly with the same1. This is what is written [immediately] after [the verse quoted above]: Wherefore doth a living man complain, &c. And then he (the Prophet Jeremiah) says again: Since the power [of doing good or evil] is in our own hands, and since all the wicked deeds which we have committed have been committed with our [full] consciousness, it befits us to turn penitently and to forsake our wickedness; the power [of doing so] being still in our hands. This is what is written [immediately] after [that verse]: Let us search

and try our ways, and turn [again to the Lord],

1

literally: and [that] he rewarded it evil.

2 Wherefore doth a living man complain, A MAN FOR [THE PUNISHMENT OF] HIS SINS? (Lam. iii. 39).

(Lam. iii. 40). Now this matter is a very important principle; nay it is the pillar of the law and of the commandments, as it is said: See, I have set before thee this day life [and good, and death and evil], (Deut. xxx. 15,); and [again] it is written: Behold, I set before you this day [a blessing and a curse], (Deut. xi. 26.); meaning, that the power [of doing good or evil] is in your hands, and that any of the actions [which are within the reach] of men, if one choose to do them, whether good or evil, he can. And for this reason it is also said: O that there were such an heart in them, (Deut. v. 29); by which it was meant to express that the Creator neither compels the sons of men, nor decrees that they should do [either] good or evil, but that all this is left to themselves.

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IV. If God were to decree that a man should be either righteous or wicked, or if there were any thing in the principle of his nativity which could attract a man to any one of the [two] ways, (i. e. to the good or the wicked way), [or induce him to incline] to any particular opinion, to any particular disposition, or to any particular action, as those foolish

* O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!

L L

astrologers' invent in their own minds-how could He have commanded us through the medium of the prophets: Do ye so and so; or, SO and so ye shall not do; mend your ways, and go not after your wickedness; if he (the man) was, from his very nativity, doomed already [to be what he is], or was attracted to the thing (i. e. to the course of life he follows) by his nature, and [in such a manner] that it was utterly impossible for him to depart from the same?-Now what room would there have been for the whole law altogether? And by what justice, or by what right, could He avenge Himself of the wicked man, or reward the righteous man?—SHALL NOT THE JUDGE OF ALL THE EARTH DO RIGHT?—

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V. You must not however wonder and say: How can a man do all that he pleases? and how can his actions be left to himself (i. e. how can a man be master of his own actions?) Can there indeed be any thing done in the world without the permission of its Possessor, and without His pleasure?-Whereas the Scripture says: Whatsoever the Lord pleased, [that] did He in heaven and in earth, (Ps. cxxxv. 6)?

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1 Who pretend, that the constellation under which a man is born, influences his moral character.

4 Whatsoever the Lord pleased, [that] did He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places..