Rabbinical teaching, two categories of good works: i. Mitzvdth
(ΓΜ) lit. “commandments” ; these consist in observances of the Torah ; ii. Works of love, of which the most important is almsgiving,
indeed so high does this stand that it has the technical name of 77 T3 (“ righteousness ’’); these two categories comprise the whole body
of DAW DWI" (“ good works”’), the former representing man’s duty to God, the latter His duty to His fellow-creatures ; cf. Matt. xxii. 36-40, 4... . Thou shalt love the Lord thy God . . . thy neigh- bour as thyself. On these two commandments hangeth the whole law and the prophets.”’ According to Jewish teaching, there are certain works of obligation; good works done over and above these are of free-will, and by these justification in the sight of God is at- tainable. There are two classes of men, those who do a sufficient number of good works to be justified in the sight of God—these are the DyT “the righteous ’’—and those who do not—these are the ory, “the wicked’; these two are differentiated on earth, for it is said in Sanhedrin, 47 a, that a YW may not be buried by the side of a 2715. But besides these two classes, there is an intermediate one, the “ones between” (01311313), who are half good and half bad; these can, by adding one good work, become reckoned among the ‘‘ righteous”’ on the Day of Atonement (δε; hashshana, 16 δ). The 079 7¥—the ‘‘ righteous ’’—were regarded as being in a state of
MD} (Zectth), which meant that their accumulation of good works was great enough to enable them to stand justified in the sight of God.
In addition to this there was also the doctrine of MIAN Ms (‘‘ merit of the fathers ’’), according to which the works of super- erogation of departed ancestors went to the account of their de- scendants. The being in a state of Zecith entitled a man, per se, to what was technically known as 1920) jd) lit. “the gift of reward” (cf.»Debarim rabba, ο. 2); and this applied to earthly reward as well as to reward hereafter. So that good works demanded reward from God; thus it is said in Yalkut Shim. Beresh., 109, that it is by right that a man is rewarded with the good things in the Garden of Eden, because he has won them for himself. Justification by faith comes only so far into consideration in that it is reckoned among the
Dw OWYPD (“ good works”), which, like all others, goes to swell
the list of a man’s FWD cf. Jas. ii. 24, ‘‘ Ye see that by works a man is justified and not only by faith”.