#the struggle against sin

…Immediately after the sin of Adam and Eve is narrated, the Torah declares that man can master his passionate lust for sin. God turns to Cain and warns him, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? If, though, you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you shall master over it.” (Genesis 4:6-7) For the architects of Christian theology, [who preached a new doctrine of inherent, unconquerable depravity, one wonders if] this [divine] declaration of man’s ability to restrain and govern his lust for sin [would be judged, ironically, as] nothing short of heresy. [On the contrary], the fact that the Torah places the comforting promise immediately following the sin in the Garden of Eden [should be] profoundly [reassuring] for [all who hear it, and celebrated by Christians as well as Jews].

Rabbi Tovia Singer