So, you think Genesis 4:7 "one can rise above sin" pertains only to Cain?

You say:

Quote:
As with Cain, one often does have opportunity to choose between right and wrong.


Judaism resptfully disagrees. One can ALWAYS choose been right and wrong.

It is your choice.

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Deuteronomy 30:15 See! Today I have set before you [a free choice] between life and good [on one side], and death and evil [on the other]. . .30:19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses! Before you I have placed life and death, the blessing and the curse. You must choose life, so that you and your descendants will survive.


Isn't this the same thing G-d said to Cain? And this He said to all us Jews. We have the choice between good and evil. We have the choice between life and death. We have a choice between the blessing and the curse.

Choose life.

This is true for an addict, too. One doesn't have to try drugs -- many have refused the first offer. One who becomes addicted (to drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, food, etc.) may strive hard to overcome the addiction.

Many do.

No one said it is easy, but it IS a choice.

One can "rise above it" as G-d said to Cain.

And there are many more examples which you have to ignore, along with Genesis 4:7 if you disagree.

You must ignore King David who said he was "INCLINED" to sin (not a sinner, but inclined to sin) from his YOUTH (not birth).

Being inclined to something means you have a choice.

Judaism teaches that man has a yetzer hara (evil inclination) and a yetzer hatov (good inclination). The evil inclination comes from physical needs (food, warmth, procreation) -- which, when taken to extreme, become evil. Sex becomes rape. Food becomes gluttony. And so on.

To say it is not our responsibility to choose good over evil is abdicating responsibility. Let Iran blow up the world, they have no choice!

Hitler wasn't a bad guy -- it was the evil outside of him that killed 12 million people.

And so on.

No, Harry -- the choice is most definitely ours to make. Torah tells us this time and time again, not just in Genesis 4:7.

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Genesis 6:5
HaShem saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.



Man's wickedness, Harry. Not some devil or outside force.

Inclination of the thoughts of his heart were evil. Man's inclination. Man's thoughts.

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Genesis 44:4
They had not gone far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, "Go after those men at once, and when you catch up with them, say to them, 'Why have you repaid good with evil?



Why would Joseph ask "why" if they had no control over their doing evil? Joseph is saying they could choose to repay good with good, but they did not.

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Exodus 32:22
"Do not be angry, my lord," Aaron answered. "You know how prone these people are to evil.



Prone to evil, Harry. Not evil.

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Deuteronomy 13:5
You must purge the evil from among you.



G-d is saying we must purge evil from among us -- so we must be able to do so -- just as He told Cain back in Genesis 4:7. We can rise above evil. We can choose good.

This is repeated

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Deuteronomy 17:7
You must purge the evil from among you.



And repeated again.

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Deuteronomy 17:12
You must purge the evil from Israel.



And again

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Deuteronomy 19:19
You must purge the evil from among you.



And again

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Deuteronomy 21:21
You must purge the evil from among you.



And yet again in Deuteronomy 22:21, 22:22, 22:24, and 24:7.

Then in the 'nach we are told:

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1 Samuel 12:25
Yet if you persist in doing evil, both you and your king will be swept away."



How could he persist in doing evil? Doesn't that clearly say that he had a choice to NOT do evil, but chose to do so?

and

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1 Samuel 15:19
Why did you not obey HaShem ? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of HaShem?"



Clearly he coud have obeyed HaShem, but did not. He CHOSE to do evil.

Choice.