In Defense of CainBy Matthew Jacobs

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In Defense of Cain By Matthew Jacobs Copyright 2011 Matthew Jacobs Smashwords Edition Smashwords Edition, License Notes Thank you for downloading this free ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for noncommercial purposes, provided the book retains its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to Smashwords.com to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support. Cover design by Digital Donna. Table of Contents Introduction The Unknown Roommate Problem Whose Responsibility is it to “Protect”? Back to the Story Cain Repents Conclusion Introduction Cain is traditionally portrayed as a vicious killer, but he was nothing of the kind. In the Bible, Cain kills his brother Abel after G-d accepts Abel's offering but not Cain's. To make matters worse, when Cain is confronted by G-d he famously says, “Am I my brother's keeper?” On the surface, there doesn't seem to be much to say in defense of Cain. A Summary of the Story In the Bible, Cain and Abel are the children of Adam and Eve. As punishment for eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, G-d kicks Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden. As a way of punishing Adam, G-d curses the ground. In the Garden of Eden the plants grew of their own accord, but from now on human beings would have to till the soil to grow food. Abel becomes a shepherd and Cain becomes a farmer. Cain brings an offering from his produce. He invents the concept of bringing a sacrifice, something that has never been done before. [1] His brother Abel goes second. In the Bible, Abel's offering is described as having “fat,” as well as being from “the firstborn of his flock.” In other words, Abel gave the most desirable portion of his most desirable animals. The Bible doesn't describe Cain's offering as being good or bad; it is just an offering. [1] From this, Biblical commentator Rashi [2] deduces that Cain's offering was not of especially good quality. Cain just brought whatever produce he happened to have lying around. G-d accepts Abel's offering and rejects Cain's. When Cain becomes despondent, rather than comforting Cain, G-d tells him to try harder. Cain remains upset and kills his brother, presumably as a way of lashing out against G-d. When G-d confronts Cain, Cain at first denies any responsibility. When G-d chastises Cain, Cain suddenly becomes very apologetic in a way that doesn't make much sense. If Cain were a heartless murderer, why the sudden change of heart? And if Cain was truly distraught about what he did, why does he initially come off as being so cold and unconcerned? “If you liked him that much, you should have protected him.” Cain's retort to G-d is traditionally translated as “Am I my brother's keeper?” (Genesis 4:9) However, the Bible uses the word hashomer, which can be translated as “to guard” or “to protect.” Cain could have been saying: “Am I responsible for protecting my brother?” By changing the emphasis, he could have been saying: “Am I responsible for protecting my brother?” meaning, “You, G-d, accepted his sacrifice over mine, and if you liked him that much you should have protected him.” This reading puts the responsibility squarely on G-d's shoulders. G-d had the power to intervene, so by not stepping in G-d was complicit in Abel's death. Really? The Unknown Roommate Problem When someone goes to college and lives with a roommate for the first time, he or she doesn't always know how the roommate is going to react. The same thing that one person would treat as a minor inconvenience, a different person might treat as a reason to be furious. When you have a new roommate, there's no substitute for spending some time together to see how he or she reacts to different situations. Only after you have spent some time with your roommate can you judge how he or she is going to react. Pretend I shot someone and then tried to argue that, because G-d didn't stop the bullet, that implied that He agreed with my decision. No one would take me seriously. That's not how the world works. G-d does not routinely intervene in such a heavy-handed manner. In Cain's case, the world was still quite new. How was Cain supposed to know under what circumstances G-d would or would not intervene? There simply was no way for him to know in advance. Cain thought G-d wanted humans to follow His instructions exactly, to the letter. When Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden of Eden, the Bible says, “So G-d banished him [Adam] from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.” Laavod et haadamah. What does Cain do? He becomes a tiller of the soil. Oved adamah. Both phrases come from the same Hebrew roots. Cain didn't choose his profession on a whim; he was following what he thought was a Divine instruction. G-d wanted human beings to work the ground, so he worked the ground. Cain saw what happened to his parents: G-d told them not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge and they disobeyed. Cain decided he was going to fix his parents' mistake by following G-d's words exactly. Thus, it was all the more disheartening to him when his sacrifice wasn't accepted, because he was explicitly following G-d's instructions in being a farmer in the first place. Whose responsibility is it to “protect”? Cain thought protecting human life was G-d's responsibility. When Adam was created, it says in the Bible that he was put in the Garden of Eden “to work and to guard.” (Genesis 2:15) L'avdah u'leshomrah. Here, “work” and “guard” are both used in the context of human beings. Later on in the story, Adam is banished from the garden “to work the ground from which he was taken.” (Genesis 3:23) In the next verse, G-d puts cherubs east of Eden, “to guard the way to the Tree of Life.” (Genesis 3:24) “Working” is still used in reference to people, but “guarding” is now something that is only done by G-d. Now Cain's retort to G-d starts to make a bit more sense. Cain kills his brother, and G-d asks, “Where is Abel your brother?” Cain replies, “I don't know. Am I responsible for protecting my brother?” There are a lot of things mixed into Cain's response. Cain was following an implied instruction to become a farmer, and he brought the world's first sacrifice, not Abel. Cain's response contains the very loaded word hashomer (“to protect” or “to guard”). Cain tosses this word right back in G-d's face, so to speak. Arrogantly? Spitefully? Perhaps, but Cain is also deeply hurt. Back to the Story Cain kills his brother, is confronted by G-d, and lashes out at G-d rather than repenting. Now look how the story continues: The L-RD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.” (Genesis 4:10-12) The easiest way to read the story is that Cain, through callousness or indifference, thought he had the right to kill Abel, and repented only when confronted with the evidence of his crime. However, that isn't what is happening here. When Cain uses the word hashomer (“to guard”) in his retort, it isn't just a word. It contains echoes of meanings of every time that word has ever been used: Cain's parents' time spent in Eden and their expulsion from there, Cain's decision to be a farmer as restitution for that sin. The word hashomer is like a stone skipped across a still lake in the early morning with the sun still low over the horizon. Each impact of the stone makes a ripple, and each ripple interacts with the others, but it is only one stone. G-d's response, similarly, can be read as authoritarian, perhaps even as being indifferent to Cain's position. But there are other meanings there as well. G-d says the ground “opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.” (Genesis 4:11. The emphasis is my own.) In other words: You, Cain, were also supposed to open your mouth. If you were angry at your brother, you were supposed to talk to him. But you didn't do that. You should have used your mouth, but instead you used your hand, and that's why you're being punished. There is another element of the story that bears mentioning. The Hebrew word for “blood” is plural, which doesn't make sense grammatically. A “literal” translation would be that the ground “received your brother's bloods from your hand.” The Biblical commentator Rashi comments that “bloods” means “[Abel's] blood, and the blood of his descendants.” When Cain first responds to G-d, he is feeling—angry? Spiteful? We'll never really know. But Cain is certainly not humble, whatever his reasons. Here, things are different. Cain for the first time realizes that he did something wrong. Not after he killed Abel, but now that he has an explanation. Prior to this point, he didn't know that death was permanent and he didn't have a good sense that human beings can do things that have lasting consequences. After all, if G-d is all-powerful He can bring people back to life after they've been murdered, right? He can, but He doesn't, and part of the reason is right here: if G-d steps in too frequently He makes it impossible for people to be responsible for their actions. Cain Repents Rabbi Paysach Krohn tells a beautiful story about Jews killed during the Holocaust. In Budapest there is a Holocaust memorial which consists of sculptures of dozens of shoes, made to represent the real shoes of real people who were executed and fell into the Danube river. Someone was having a hard time picturing how many people were killed, and he saw the sculptures of the shoes and was overcome with emotion. Seeing those shoes made the experience tangible for him. These were no longer anonymous people who died. Suddenly, they felt utterly real, and it was only when the man perceived them as being real that he was able to grieve over them. In Cain's case, he knew he killed his brother, but it wasn't a felt reality. When G-d said the word “bloods”—implying that Cain killed all of Abel's descendants—I like to think of Cain suddenly realizing the magnitude of what he had done. Now Cain can see the victims of his crime as tangibly as shoes stretching off towards the horizon. Cain said to the L-RD, “My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” But the L-RD said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the L-RD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. (Genesis 4:13-15) This is the first point in the story where Cain seems truly contrite. He acknowledges that he deserves to be punished, and asks only for leniency. Cain says, “[W]hoever finds me will kill me.” As Cain killed his brother the first time he had an argument with him, he assumes everyone else will act the same way towards him. But people aren't really like that. First G-d assures Cain that Cain is not going to be killed right away. Even in the “heartless murderer” reading, I'm always surprised when people interpret the “mark of Cain” as being an extension of the punishment. The “mark of Cain” is some sort of mark or sign so people will know not to kill Cain. As such, it shows that, for whatever reason, G-d decides to make the punishment less severe. So Cain went out from the L-RD’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. (Genesis 4:16) The word “Nod” has the same root as the Hebrew word for “wanderer.” G-d curses Cain to be a wanderer, though he doesn't actually become one. Instead he travels to the land of Nod and starts building a city. The Hebrew could also be read to mean he was continually building the city—for atonement? The text doesn't say. Is Cain still following implied commandments, traveling to Nod when G-d told him to be a wanderer, just as he became a farmer when G-d told Adam to work the ground? Has Cain truly changed as a result of this experience? I don't know. After Cain's conversation with G-d, the Bible says, “Cain went out from the L-RD's presence.” By not leaving right away, G-d shows nonverbally that even as He is punishing Cain, he still cares about him. Surely this is a situation that modern-day parents can relate to. The punishment itself is not open to discussion, but the parent still wants the child to know that he or she is valued. Cain, for his part, accepts his punishment without further argument or discussion. It is interesting to note that G-d cares enough about Cain to have two conversations with him: one after his sacrifice is rejected and a second one after he kills Abel. When Adam and Eve were going through the process of being tempted or tricked into eating from the Tree of Knowledge, G-d never appeared to them and tried to talk them out of it. Conclusion There is a lot to be learned from this story about child rearing and the responsible use of power. One of my least favorite questions is: “Why did G-d allow the Holocaust to take place?” As I mentioned before, if G-d steps in too frequently or too aggressively He makes it impossible for human beings to be responsible for their actions. Somewhere in this story there are lessons for those embroiled in the Middle East conflict. All human beings aspire to responsible independence. For me, the biggest lesson was realizing that the character of Cain, as well as the Bible as a whole, is more complicated than I thought. In the words of Eugene Delacroix, “What moves those of genius, what inspires their work is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough.” ### Resources and Inspiration The Brick Testament: Stories from the Book of Genesis Les Miserables Wicked The Little Midrash Says: Genesis The Midrash Says: Genesis Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy, by Henry Kissinger Repentance: The Meaning and Practice of Teshuvah, by Louis E. Newman “The World's First Murder,” a 16-part series by Rabbi David Fohrman Endnotes 1. “The World's First Murder, Part 2: The Enigmatic Genius of Cain,” by Rabbi David Fohrman http://www.aish.com/jl/b/eb/ca/48957366.html 2. Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashi
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