7
1 Do you not have da'as, Achim b'Moshiach, for I speak to those who know the Torah, that the Torah exercises marut (authority, rule) over a man so long as he lives? 2 For the agunah (woman whose husbandʼs whereabouts are unknown) is bound by the gezetz to her husband while he lives; but in the case that her husbandʼs death can be confirmed, she is no longer an agunah and is released from the gezetz of her husband. 3 Accordingly she will be named no'ehfet (adulteress) if, while her husband lives, she becomes another manʼs. But if her ba'al (husband) dies, she is free from the gezetz, so that she is no no'ehfet (adulteress) if she becomes another manʼs.
4 So then, Achim b'Moshiach, you also were put to death in relation to the Gezetz through the basar of Moshiach,* in order that you might become anotherʼs, bound to Moshiach who was given Techiyah (Resurrection) from the Mesim, so that we might bear p'ri for Hashem. 5 For when we were in the basar (in the fallen condition of the old humanity), through the Gezetz, the ta'avat besarim, the sinful passions† were working in our natural capacities, so as to bear p'ri for mavet (death).‡ 6 But now we have become niftar (freed, deceased) from the dominating ownership of the Gezetz, having died to that by which we were confined, so that we might serve in the Ruach Hakodesh of hitkhadshut and newness and not in the yoshen (oldness) of chumra (stringency, strict adherence to the letter of the law).§
7 What then shall we say? That the Gezetz is considered as chet (sin)? Chas v'shalom! Nevertheless, I would not have experienced chet (sin) except through the Gezetz; for I would not have known chamdanut (covetousness, greediness) if the Torah had not said, LO TACHMOD*(Thou shalt not covet). 8 But Chet (Sin), seizing its opportunity through the mitzvoh (commandment), stirred up all manner of chamdanut (covetousness) in me. For in the absence of the Gezetz, Chet (Sin) is dead. 9 And in the absence of the Gezetz I was once alive. But when the mitzvoh (commandment) came,† Chet (Sin) became alive, 10 and I died. The mitzvoh (commandment) intended as the Derech L'Chayyim (Way to Life) proved for me a means to mavet (death). 11 For Chet (Sin), seizing its opportunity through the mitzvoh (commandment), deceived me and, through the mitzvoh (commandment), killed me.‡ 12 So that the Torah is kedoshah (holy) and the mitzvoh (commandment) is kedoshah and yasharah and tovah.
13 Did that which is good, then, become mavet (death) to me? Chas v'shalom! But Chet (Sin), it was Chet, working mavet (death) in me through that which is tovah, in order that Chet might be shown as Chet (Sin), and in order that Chet through the mitzvoh (commandment) might become chata'ah gedolah ad m'od (utterly sinful). 14 For we have da'as that the Torah is Ruchanit (Spiritual, of the Ruach Hakodesh); but I am of the basar (fallen humanity) sold under the power of (slave master Chet Kadmon) Chet. 15 For I do not have da'as what I do. For that which I commit is not what I want; no, it is what I hate that I do! 16 But if that which I do is what I do not want, I agree with the Torah that the Gezetz is good. 17 But now it is no longer I doing this, but [the power of] Chet (Sin) which dwells within me.§ 18 For I have da'as that there dwells in me, that is, in my basar (my fallen humanity enslaved to Chet Kadmon) no good thing; for the wish [to do what is right] lies ready at hand for me, but to accomplish the good is not. 19 For I fail to do good as I wish, but HaRah (The Evil) which I do not wish is what I commit. 20 But if what I do not wish is that which I do, it is no longer I doing it but [the power of] Chet (Sin, Chet Kadmon, Original Sin) which dwells within me.*
21 I find then it be a Gezetz that for me who wishes to do HaTov (The Good), that for me HaRah (The Evil) lies ready at hand. 22 For I rejoice, I have simcha Torah in the Torah of Hashem, so far as the adam hapenimi† is concerned, 23 But I see another gezetz (law) in my natural capacities at milchamah (war) with the Torah of my mind and making me a prisoner to the Gezetz of Chet (Sin) which is [a power] in my natural capacities. 24 Wretched man am I! Who will deliver me from the body of this mavet (death)? 25 Hodu l'Hashem(thanks be to G-d) b'Moshiach Yehoshua Adoneinu. So then I myself with my mind serve the Torah of Hashem and with my basar I serve the Gezetz of Chet (the Law of Sin).‡
* 7:4 Ps 16:9-10; Ro 8:3 † 7:5 i.e., Chet Kadmonʼs yetzer harah of the fallen human condition ‡ 7:5 cf. Ro 4:15 § 7:6 Ro 2:29 * 7:7 Ex 20:17 † 7:9 Gn 2:16-17 ‡ 7:11 Gn 3:1-6 § 7:17 Ro 5:13-14; 6:23 * 7:20 cf. Ro 8:7-8 † 7:22 Ep 3:16 ‡ 7:25 The total spiritual turn-around here described is when the conviction of the intellect, emotion, and will “obey from the heart the form of doctrine laid out here in Scripture” as we are born anew in the humanity of the new Man and die to the old depraved Adam