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For your Shabbat table discussion: two important questions are asked in
this week's Torah portion. God asks Adam, "Where art thou?" Cain asks
God,"Am I my brother's keeper?" How would we as individuals, and as a
community, answer these questions today?
"Who's on First?"
SYNOPTIC ABSTRACT:
This Shabbat's portion takes us back to our Sunday school days. We all
have been told the Biblical stories of the creation, Adam and Eve, Cain
and Abel, and the expulsion from the garden of Eden. If you wish to brush
up on your knowledge since your childhood days, please read on.
Let us begin "in the beginning" (Gen. 1:01). In Hebrew, these English
words are rendered as one word-- "Bereishit." This is the name of our
parasha and the name of the first book of the Torah. In English, it is
called "Genesis. " The word begins with the Hebrew letter Bait, which is
the second letter of the Hebrew Aleph-Bait, or as we say in English,
"alphabet."
Let us begin at the beginning and discuss this one letter, Bait. The
Midrash (books of parables from the time of the Talmud, 2500 years ago), asks why the Torah starts with this letter. The rabbis explain that before God was about to create the world, each of the twenty-two
letters of the Hebrew alphabet came before Him and asked that the world
be created specifically with its letter. The Tat said it should be first,
since the word Torah begins with it. This scenario continued with each
letter giving a short discourse on why it should be used as the first
letter. Bait said it should be used because it is used to bless God with
berachot (blessings).
The kabbalists delve into this letter more deeply. They say that the
numerical equivalent of the letter Bait is two. They write that this
alludes to harmony and unity. When people live together and work
together, not as separate units, but as a team, the world has meaning and
life has value. The one major theme of Torah and of this D'var series
will be to show that people must always think of others, and not just of
themselves. As we will see time and time again, especially in the
inter-family relationships of Genesis, "that a world in which everyone
considers his own needs and has no sensitivity toward the needs of
others is perverted," says rabbi Leib Scheinbaum.
As rabbi David Shneur posits, dissent and discord along with thinking
selfishly lies at the root of all the world's ills. By reading this
week's parasha, we can see how the first family was marred by inner
strife between the world's first brothers, Cain and Abel. If there is one
recurrent theme I notice when I study Torah it is that the world was
built upon a foundation of God's altruism. He did not have to create the
world. King David writes in Psalm 89:03 that "the world is built upon
chesed (kindness)." It will be by our following these ethical precepts
that, hopefully, we will learn together. By doing ahavath chesed (acts of
loving kindness) we will affect the world's continued growth.
"The blood of your brother cries out to Me from the ground" (Gen .4:10). As
we know from our Passover seders, when we count the Ten Plagues, the
Hebrew word for blood is "dahm." In this verse from Genesis the Hebrew
word is "dahmie", which is "bloods." The rabbis in Talmud Tractate
Sanhedrin 37A say that Cain's crime was not limited to one person. He had
shed Abel's blood and the blood of potential descendants. They derive
from this the notion that "he who saves a life, saves the whole world",
as well as the converse. The rabbis also posit that since Cain did not
know how to kill, as he was the one who "invented" murder, he had to hit,
stab, stone, and whip Abel many times until he caused a mortal wound. It
was only after severing his jugular vein in his neck, that Abel died. The
sages say that every bleeding wound cried out in pain and for
retribution. Rabbi Joel Sharin cites Psalm 9 to discuss this further.
"The avenger of blood (doresh dahmim) has remembered them. He has not
forgotten the cry of the humble." For some Modern Jews, who wish not believe in
divine reward and punishment, we have the obligation to be our own doresh
dahmim, as well as to be careful not to spill blood.
This concept applies not just to "murder" but to other forms of spilling
blood. We spill blood when we do character assassination with loshan ha
ra (gossip). We spill blood when we destroy another's self esteem or
dignity. One does not have to be mortally wounded to suffer irreparable
damage. As we will learn in future parashot, our mouths can destroy
lives. We can run over others' feelings in our race for our own personal
success. When we act cruelly to others and our children and grandchildren
see it, we are killing our own offspring. When the grandparent snubs
others, are we surprised when we see her child and grandchild do the
same? The Torah shows us this with Cain's great-grandson, Tuval Cain.
Tuval's great-grandfather was the world's first murderer. Tuval becomes
the world's first arm's dealer (Gen. 4:22). We have to do our best to
curb our own behaviors and be our own, as well as our neighbors', doresh
dahmim.
We can learn yet another lesson from this parasha. We can learn about
teshuvah (repentance). Cain was unable (no pun) to bring Abel back to
life. We are taught that Cain had a son and named him Chanoch. Cain
"became a city builder and named the city after his son"(Gen.4:17). Cain
became remorseful over killing his brother. He asked himself where the he
got the burning passion to kill. The Midrash teaches that Cain learned
the value of human life too late. But he did teshuvah by building cities
and teaching human values to his descendants. Chanoch is a derivative of
the Hebrew word for education, "chinuch." Cain realized that educating
children about moral values to was important to ensure that his mistake
would not be repeated by others. Ironically, the Midrash tells us how
Cain died. When his grandson, Lamech, was old and partially blind,
Lamech's son Tuval took him hunting. They used Tuval's "sharpened
implements of copper and iron." Being weak sighted, Lamech mistook Cain
for a deer and killed him. Sins of fathers can be visited onto the sons.
Before we end this d'var Torah, let us see how the Zohar, the book of
Kabbalah, (Jewish mysticism) interprets parts of this parasha. Genesis 5:1-4 lists the
generations of Adam, but omits Cain and Abel. We know traditionally that
God created man on the sixth day (Gen.1:27). But we read later in Gen.
2:5, that "there was no man to till the ground." The Zohar says that
this is because only the second creation is called a "living
creature"(Gen.2.07), because it is only he who receives a "soul--breath
of life" from God. There were therefore two creations of Man. The first
was souless and not fit to till the soil. He is called a "beast of the
field"(Gen.1:24). The second is called Adam.
Then God says "it is not good for man to be alone...and will make a
helpmate for him." Then God made the animals and brought them all to Adam
from which to choose a helpmate. "But the man did not find a suitable
helpmate from among them"(Gen. 2:18). The Zohar says, "Alas for the
stupidity and blindness of men who do not perceive the mysteries of the
Torah and do not know that by 'the beasts in the field,' are designated
the unlearned first creation of man, who were soulless men-animals among
soulful men."
Genesis 3:01 says "the serpent (nachash) was more cunning than all the
beasts of the field." The Zohar says that he was their leader, the first
soulless man created by God. He was fruitful and multiplied creating more
soulless and unlearned man-animals. The sages write that Nachash walked
upright until he was later cursed by God and made to "crawl on his belly
and eat dust"(Gen.3:14). The Zohar says that Nachash was the ideal form
of Satan.
God also said that "it is not good that man should be alone"(Gen. 2:18).
The Zohar says that, just as there was a first and second man, there were
two women. The first was called Lilith. She was formed out of the ground
as were the other beasts of the field (Gen.2:19). Eve was created from
Adam's rib (Gen. 2:22). Eve became Adam's wife. And Lilith was Nachash's
wife.
Both Rashi and the sages of the Zohar agree that Nachash sexually desired
Eve when he saw her naked and having sex with Adam. The Zohar says that
this is what is meant by Eve saying "The serpent (Nachash) seduced
me"(Gen. 3:13). The sages say that both Adam and Nachash had sex with
Eve. She conceived by both of them. Cain is the son of Nachash, and Abel
is the son of Adam. But even Abel has "good wine mixed with bad." The
Zohar states that Nachash injected his impure semen into Eve, and she
absorbed it. Then when Adam had sex with her, the serpent's seed mixed
with his. Therefore, neither Abel nor Cain was a pure son of Adam. And
this is why neither are listed in the generations of Adam, and why the
Torah tells us in Genesis 5:03 that Adam and Eve begot Seth "in his
(Adam's) likeness and in his (Adam's) image."
Lest I forget, the Midrash of Ben-Sira (written somewhere between 600 and
1000 CE) says that Adam too had sex with Lilith. He didn't like it, as
Lilith always insisted on being on top. She asked of Adam, "Why must I
lie beneath you? I also was made from dust and am your equal." Adam then
tried to compel her by force. Lilith, in a rage, uttered the unspeakable
four-lettered name of God, became winged, and flew away. God sent three
angels to find her. They found Lilith at the Red Sea in a orgy with
"lascivious demons to whom she bore 'lilim' (she-devils) at the rate of
more than one hundred a day." In the Targum Yerushalmi Aramaic
translation of the Chumash, the priestly blessing of Numbers 6:26 is,
"The Lord bless thee in all thy doings and preserve thee from Lilim!"
Lilith is mentioned in the Talmud in four Tractates (Eruvin 100B, Niddah
24B, Shabbat 151B, and Bava Batra 73A). The rabbis say she is a
wild-haired, nymphomaniac, winged creature and the mother of demons.
She is mentioned in Isaiah 34:14, but some translations use the name
"night monster", based on the Hebrew word "lillah" for night. Rabbi Hanna
forbids men to sleep alone for fear that Lilith will come at night and
seduce them. Some stories show her to have demon children. Other tales
show her to be barren and seek out others' children to kill. There are
some sects of Judaism that hang an angelic amulet above the cribs of boys
who are not yet circumcised to protect them from Lilith. A ring of
charcoal is drawn on the baby's bedroom wall. Inside the ring is written
"Adam and Eve in. Out Lilith!" If a child is heard laughing in his sleep,
the mother strikes the child's lips with one finger, whereupon Lilith
vanishes.
Because Lilith left the garden of Eden before Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit and became mortal, some Midrashim say that Lilith is
immortal. Some say she was the demoness who killed Job's sons. Others say
she was the Queen of Sheba who visited King Solomon. Solomon suspected
Sheba of being Lilith because she had hairy legs, as well as preferring
sex while on top.
The Zohar developed a theory that Adam originally was comprised of both
male and female elements. Talmud Tractates Berachot 61A and Eruvin 18B
say, "Adam, who was the first man, had two full faces." Rabbi Samuel ben
Nachman said that when God created Adam, "He created him as a
hermaphrodite." The Midrash Leviticus Rabbah says "When man was created,
he was created with two body fronts, and God sawed him in two, so that
two bodies resulted, one for the male and one for the female." From this,
the Kabbalists posit that everyone of us has a heavenly soulmate that we
were joined with before we were born. Our responsibility, if we are lucky,
is to find our soul mate ( beshert) and to rejoin with that person in
marriage. This marriage therefore would be one of equals, with no one
always on top, so to speak. While our tradition is full of sexist "old
husbands' tales" about women, that some sects in our religion choose to
cling to as a way of keeping women enslaved, we also find throughout our
literature women shown in a equal and honored light. It is from these
traditions that we as Spiritual Jews need to hold onto and learn . As Jews,
we must continually ask ourselves "where we are" and to remind ourselves
that we are indeed our bothers' and sisters' keepers. And while we might have thought
thought that religious school was boring when we were kids, my hope is that you will find the study of Torah, and the texts of Talmud, Midrash and other great books, not to be.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Arthur Segal
ORIGINAL EDITION WRITTEN WHEN SCHOLAR IN RESIDENCE AT CONGREGATION TEMPLE MICKVE ISRAEL, SAVANNAH, GA
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