What does Jewish tradition make of ‘Sin’?

Every year the Burton on Trent chapter of the Ahmadiyyah Women’s Association hold an interfaith event to which I am invited.  Until recently, these events have always been held on Shabbat so I made short video speeches for them.  This year they moved the event to a Sunday, but due to Purimspiel preparations, I again had to make a short video.  The text below is a version of that speech.  I don’t write speeches to read out, only ever a list of bullet points, but that wouldn’t suit the website, so this is a development of those bullet points rather than the actual speech. This years topic was ‘How to be free from sin’, which from a Jewish perspective is quite a challenging topic.

Judaism, like Islam, was conceived and framed in a different language to the English we are using now.  Every language carries its own meanings and concepts that don’t always overlap well with similar in other languages. The English word ‘sin’ is perhaps a case in point as in English this word is shaped by Christian understandings that don’t map well onto Jewish ones.

I have recently been reading  Rabbi Adam Zagoria-Moffat’s book ‘A Spark of Total Darkness: Decolonising Jewish Thought (2025), where he explores exactly this issue.  He explains that the English text in prayer books often translates two Hebrew words as ‘sin’, however, they are more correctly rendered as:

• Averah - transgression, a passing over the boundary of appropriate behaviour, either on purpose or by accident

• Chet - mistake, a missing of the mark

  
  

This is quite different to how the Oxford English Dictionary defines the word ‘sin’ - an offence against God or against a religious or moral law.  ‘Sin’ is a much more forceful concept than missing the mark, or stepping over a boundary.  In Christian thinking, ‘sin’ is part of Original sin, our inherently fallen nature that has separated us from the Divine and only Jesus’ redemptive death provides a path of return. 

Jewish teaching sees the correct way of life as ‘halacha’.  Again this is often mistranslated as ‘Jewish law’ but it is more accurately translated as ‘the way, or path’ .  Halacha is a way of life, a  path with two boundaries,  and so it is possible to go off either side.  This could be by being too strict with an interpretation of the way, or by being too lenient.  Being too strict risks extremism, being too lenient risks the dangers of relativism.  Staying on the path is about balance and, interestingly, we find similar ideas in the Vedic traditions of India.   The path is wide, allowing many people to walk, but they may well be walking slightly differently.  We walk at different speeds, some walk in a straight line, others wobble, some walk more on one side than the other etc.  As long as this route is on the path, all is good.

Teshuvah is the process of reflecting and recalibrating where we are on the path – have we wandered off? How can we return to the middle way?  It is important to note that it is the action that takes us off the path, not something in our nature.  We have no idea of Original sin as found in Chistian thinking.  Everyone is born a blank slate with a yetzer ha tov (an inclination to do good actions) and a yetzer ha ra (an inclination to make mistakes, or go wrong).  This means it is the action, not the actor that is at fault.

Key to Jewish teaching is the idea that everyone makes mistakes, not because they are ‘sinners’ but because we are human with free will.  Torah shows us this through the stories of our forefathers and mothers – Moseh Rabbeinu kills a man and goes against Hashem’s instruction, Sarah Immeinu becomes jealous of Hagar.  One of the things I love about Torah is how relatable, how like us, our founding families were.  

So how do we avoid making mistakes? Jewish teaching assumes that we cannot avoid it completely.  Even the lamedvavniks, the 36 righteous people that balance the world according to our traditions, are not free from making mistakes.  What makes them righteous is their ability to reflect upon and correct their mistakes whether those are mistakes with others or mistakes with Hashem.  What counts is how you respond to going off the path – do you carry on further off the path? Do you realise what you are doing and correct it?  This process of teshuvah, or returning, is a constant one.

Whilst Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur focus our minds on a yearly basis, our Rabbis teach that this constant vigilance and reflection are daily tasks.  Our Sages teach that perfection is impossible.  51% good, is good enough, but there is, of course, always room for improvement. Rav Kook reminds us:

‘The truly righteous do not complain about darkness, but increase light.  They don’t complain about evil, but increase justice.  They don’t complain about heresy but increase faith.  They don’t complain about ignorance, but increase wisdom’

(Quoted in Zagoria-Moffet 2025)

Bibliography

Zagoria-Moffet, A (2025)  A Spark of Total Darkness: Decolonising Jewish Thought, Izzun Books, St Albans   ISBN: 978-1-7390896-7-2