Edited sentence: According to some Jewish thinkers, the laws set out by God were designed to make people happy: not to be ritualistic, cumbersome, etc.Also "repentance" carries the connotation of changed behavior.By breaking God's law, (according to this theory), you are really just harming yourself directly and in this life, so forgiveness from God is irrelevant.Christianity seems to suffer from a problem: if forgiveness is freely available at any time, what incentive is there to live a moral life.Forgiveness can only come from God when subjectively asked, not when a simple outward expression is made.It is not a stretch of the imagination to see that the violation of the moral law would quickly degenerate into a chaotic society if everyone lied, killed, stole, and so on - this has been noted not only by Judeo-Christian thinkers, but also by philosophers as diverse as Confucius and Voltaire.Shylock and the Duke know the law is for the functioning of society, but Shylock breaks it anyway; Portia believes forgiveness is the quality which maintains the well-being of society.Someone can not steal, outwardly say they are sorry and be forgiven unless they subjectively desire to be saved by God.This argument falls on its face though because forgiveness is not freely available at anytime, but rather only when someone truly desires it.Thus, someone who is forgiven will not break the law again