In Defense of the 7 Deadly Sins

One of the differences between Christianity and Judaism is that Christianity is more prone to simply labeling things in this world as “good” or “bad” and acting accordingly. So, for example, alcohol, to many Christians, is “the devil’s drink.” But to Jews, everything in the world can be used for holy OR profane ends. Nothing is considered inherently positive or negative.

So we could, for example, look at the 7 Deadly Sins. Though, to my reading, they really ought to be considered “desires” or “temptations.” Nevertheless, I’d like to offer a quick Jewish defense of each of them.

Lust. Celibacy is no virtue in the Torah. The High Priest could not serve unless he was married! We think lust is great. Within marriage, that is.

Gluttony. When we show appreciation to G-d for his blessings, the Torah tells us, “[A]nd thou shalt bestow that money on all that thy heart desires, on oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink, or whatever thy soul requires: and thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thy household."

Sloth. “Keep the Sabbath Day. Thou shall do no work on it.”

Pride. We are absolutely supposed to be proud of our G-d, and the good things we have achieved in our lives. We should be proud of our parents and our children.

Greed. Poverty is not a Jewish virtue. Why suffer? We don’t have a problem with people who want to acquire as much as possible, because we know those people can do an enormous amount of good with it. Why should the government be the only people who are allowed to seek to accumulate?

Envy. The Torah forbids coveting someone else’s possessions. On the other hand, we are encouraged to follow in the footsteps of great scholars and leaders. On the merits, envy is harder to defend, since Jews are taught that we should never seek to have someone else’s life – our own challenges are more than sufficient, thank you.

Wrath. Here my thesis gets even weaker. Jews never believe in losing control. We are not supposed to give in to animalistic rage. The Torah can excuse wrath (i.e. avenging the death of a loved one). But it is never condoned.

All in all, 5 out of 7. Tempering all the above: to the extent that the 7 Deadlies are about acting with animal instincts and desires, then Judaism and Christianity agree. But those desires, by themselves, are not necessarily sinful in Judaism.

Even selfishness is not a problem for Jews – the Hebrew word for “mourner” is the same word as “I,” indicating that someone who mourns is justifiably thinking about themselves, and the personal impact of the loss. So there seems to be a time and a place for selfishness. It is a stepping stone on the way to healing, after all. And that is good – as long as mourning is a waypoint and not the destination.

Of course, the above may be a caricature of Christian views of the Seven Deadly Sins. I clearly am no expert on the faith. But I thought this might be an interesting thought experiment nevertheless.