What was the motive for Cain’s crime?

 

A seemingly obvious answer is that he was jealous of his brother. He let his passions rein and he killed him. 1

 

And the message of this part of the story? Control your passions.   

 

Yet one can question this explanation. Do we really need the Cain and Abel story to tell us that passions running amok can be hazardous? And why would the Bible use this story in particular to demonstrate the consequences of unbridled passion?  One might also ask whether Cain would really get that jealous about Abel winning God’s favor.

 

Moreover, jealousy is usually based on something out of a person’s reach. If the same thing can be obtained with minimal effort, what is there to get jealous about? 

 

So, with Cain. God tells him in rebuke that acceptance of his offering can be readily achieved. He just needs to work on his attitude. And this is certainly within his reach. 

 

Motives of jealousy and passion just do not seem to fit well into this story. 

 

There is, however, another possibility that suggests itself. Two things were uppermost in Cain’s mind - himself and his privileges. Inadvertently, Abel had stepped on both. 

 

As discussed in the previous chapter, Cain regarded himself as the spiritual head of the family. Abel had butted in. Not only this, but he had even earned God’s favor when doing so.  

This situation could not be so easily rectified. Cain could insist that his brother not butt in again, but Abel could protest that he already had a rapport with God while Cain did not. Alternatively, he could get rid of his brother. 

 

Following His rejection of Cain’s offering, God provides a warning to Cain. Does this warning accord with the explanation I have given? 

 

I suggest it does.

 

What type of warning was this?

 

God knows the innermost thoughts of man. He would surmise, knowing Cain’s character, that following His rejection of Cain’s offering there was the potential for violence. It follows, therefore, that he would provide Cain with a warning.

 

This warning, however, constitutes one of the most enigmatic sentences in the Torah. I am not the only one to say this. The Talmud ranks this sentence among the five most puzzling sentences in the Torah, probably because it is difficult to know whom or what precisely are the subjects and objects of this sentence.2 The language is also poetic and not straightforward. This is why one sees wide-ranging interpretations and translations.

 

An acceptable translation would be as follows:

 

And YKVK said to Cain: “Why are you upset and why has your countenance fallen? Surely, if you improve yourself you will be lifted up (se’et). But if you do not improve, sin crouches (rovetz) at the door. Its desire (teshukatzo) is towards you, yet you can conquer it (Genesis 4:6). 

 

What does the Torah mean when it says  - “….  if you improve yourself, you will be lifted up”.  Who or what is being lifted up"?  

 

Rashi, based on Targum Onkelos, translates the phrase as “you will be forgiven,” since in other contexts the Hebrew phrase “nose avon” (נשאעון) means forgiving a sin. In other words, if you improve yourself, your sin of bringing an imperfect offering will be forgiven. 

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However, it could be asked of Rashi and Onkelos: what sin had Cain committed? Without any nudging, Cain had made an offering. Disappointingly, it did not meet the grade. Nevertheless, it is difficult to regard Cain’s actions as being sinful.

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Nachmanides suggests that lifting up relates to Cain’s status, and suggests the translation: “If you improve yourself you will have [added] lifting [beyond that of your brother, for you are after all the firstborn].”3

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Ibn Ezra suggests that it is “your countenance” that will be lifted up, since the beginning of the sentence refers to Cain’s countenance falling. Doing a better job would be the means of his countenance being lifting up and having more self-esteem.4 In other words, God recognizes Cain’s annoyance and depression and is saying to him something like: “don’t feel dejected, put all this behind you, do a better job and you will have good reason to feel satisfied about everything.”

 

In whichever way one translates the first part of this sentence, the bottom line is that it is well within Cain’s capability to restore matters to their prior state. All he needs do is make an offering with the right intent.  

 

However, there is another interpretation that places a somewhat different perspective on this verse. The verb “se’et” can mean either “you will be lifted up” in the masculine or “it will be lifted up,” with the latter having a feminine construct. The word “mincha” or offering mentioned in a prior but one sentence is a feminine noun.5 Hence the verse could be saying – “if you do a better job, it (namely your offering) will be lifted up (i.e., your offering will become acceptable to God), but “if you do not improve, sin crouches at the door”.

 

This sentence now reads as a condemnation of people like Cain who use religion for furthering their own desires for acquisitions, power, and control. 

 

We now need to explicate the second part of this verse:

 

But if you do not improve, sin crouches (rovetz) at the door. Its desire (teshukatzo) is towards you, yet you can conquer it (Genesis 4:6). 

 

Rashi and Nahmanides view these words as indicating that the yetzer hara, the evil inclination, or one’s passions to do evil, are lurking behind the door ready to pounce whenever they are given the opportunity.  

 

However, R’ Hirsch strongly disagrees with this and says the following (and German often translates rather awkwardly) about this part of the verse: 

 

Sin, the appeal of the senses. . . .  It has the power to master you, but it remains quietly behind our door. . . .  If it is at home with you, yea, finally to become the master of your house, you must in the first instance have invited it in. . . . 

 

G-d has given sensuality an appeal to your senses, not that it should master and direct it, but that you should master and direct it. . .  but “timshal”, regulate it, rule over it and . . . direct it. That is its whole purpose and calling.6

 

In other words, he is interpreting the words “Its longing is towards you/ and you shall rule over it” not as “Its longing is towards you yet you shall rule over it” as others have done, but rather “Its longing is towards you that you should rule over it”.

 

He has considerable textual support and even a midrashic saying for this interpretation:7

 

The word “rovetz” is often translated as “crouch,” although this is not a good translation. This verb is typically associated with a lion as in: 

 

Judah is a lion’s whelp, from prey my son you ascended; he stooped down, he crouched, lied down (rovetz) like a lion, and like an awesome lion who dares rouse him up? (Genesis 49:9)

 

In this context, the verb “rovetz” is not so much crouch, as lying down in a leisurely way. Similarly, in this sentence from the Book of Exodus:

 

Perhaps you will see the donkey of someone you hate lying (rovetz) under its burden, will you refrain from helping him? You shall surely help along with him. (Exodus 23:5)

 

This is not a donkey crouching and ready to pounce, but a donkey lying down struggling with its load.  

Two other words in God’s warning to Cain will also be familiar to us – “to desire” and ”to rule” — since we met them both in the previous chapter in relation to Eve’s desire for her husband:

 

To the woman he said, I will greatly multiply the pain of your child bearing; in sorrow you shall bring forth children; and your desire (teshukatzcha) shall be to your husband, and he shall rule (yimshol) over you. (Genesis 3:16)

 

There is no malevolent intent here. The “desire” of a woman is not to trip up her husband but to become a partner with him in a joint mission. 

 

Here also, God is saying that the desires and passions of a person should be a positive factor in that person’s development. Admittedly, they have the potential for being used for evil. Your role, Cain, is to use them as they were intended, namely for the betterment of yourself. 

 

Cain has before him a choice. He can admit that Abel’s offering was a more appropriate way of thanking God than his own. If he does this, he is acknowledging Abel’s right to have a relationship with God that includes formalistic ritual. In so doing, he is diminishing his own role as the religious functionary of the family. Alternatively, he can get rid of Abel.  

 

Before closing this section, there is an issue that could be asked here and that could have been asked with respect to previous verses, namely why did the Torah put this warning in such an abstruse manner such that multiple interpretations are possible? 

 

The most likely answer, I suggest, is that the Torah employs different literary formats and in this passage the Torah is inviting the reader to penetrate the subtleties of the language and formulate suggestions as to its meaning. It is not that any one suggestion is more correct than another, but that everyone will find the meaning and relevance most appropriate for him or herself in the period and situation in which they live.

 

There is another example of this in this section. Prior to his killing of Abel, the Torah describes Cain meeting Abel in the field, and then he “said” to his brother. But the Bible provides no mention as to what Cain actually said! The verb “said” in Hebrew always requires a subject, just as it does in English. 

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And Cain said to his brother when they were in the field.  And Cain rose up against his brother and killed him (Genesis 4:8).

 

Here also the text is inviting the reader to suggest reasons for the blank. 

 

So let us do so.

 

Cain could well have told his brother that he, Cain, was the boss of the family and that Abel as a nobody had no right to infringe on his privileges. Perhaps an argument ensued. What Abel said, though, really made no difference, since Cain had already decided to kill him. Perhaps this is why the blank is here. This was less a sin of passion than premeditated murder.  

  

Does the punishment fit the crime?

 

Well before Gilbert and Sullivan thought up the idea, the Torah formulated the concept that a punishment should always fit the crime. Punishment is dispensed measure for measure according to the offence. This concept operates in this story too. The relevant verses are as follows:

 

God said to Cain: “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said: “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” Then He said: “What have you done? Behold, your brother’s bloods cry out to me from the ground. Therefore, you are cursed from the ground which opened wide its mouth to receive your brother’s bloods from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall not continue to yield its strength to you. You shall become a wanderer and exile on the land. Cain said to God: “My iniquity is too great to bear. You have banished me this day from the face of the ground and I will be hidden from your presence. I will be a vagrant and wanderer on earth: whoever meets me will kill me!” … Cain left the presence of God and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden (Genesis 4:9-16).

 

Nothing is hidden from God, even the innermost thoughts of man. God asks Cain the whereabouts of his brother and then tells him that He knows full well where he is.8

 

And the measure for measure? 

 

Rashi looks at the next sentence about Abel’s life force crying out from the ground. The ground has been cursed ever since Adam was driven from the Garden of Eden. This was a general curse applicable to all mankind. Now, he, Cain, will be cursed even more from the “ground” than previously and this curse is directed specifically at him.  

 

Another idea by Kimchi - Cain is now cut off from the “ground” since he forced it open to receive (i.e., absorb) Abel’s blood. 

R

’ Hirsch suggests that the “ground” provided Cain the opportunity to use his position as firstborn to further his material acquisitions and maintain his position. Since he committed murder, measure for measure he is now cut off from the earth.9 

 

While not negating any of these aspects of measure for measure punishment, another dimension to this murder is worthy of discussion.

 

The Cain and Abel story is a story about the Agricultural Revolution. The Torah is now telling us something new about the “ground” and its use and abuse by man. Cain’s exile is not only  punishment but part of a metaphysical construct. As R’ Hirsch points out:

 

When God placed the earth under man’s sway, it was to be elevated in the service of moral human purposes by the use of its powers. But crime severs the bond between earth and man.9

The earth is unable to yield its bounty to a murderer because the earth around him is soaked with the blood of his victim. Cain is an agriculturalist. Therefore, there is no option for him but to become a wanderer on the face of the earth.

 

Cain also recognizes, and God agrees with him, that because of this murder “I will be hidden from your face.” When God turns His face to someone, he is exposed to Divine providence.10  When he is hidden from God’s face, there is loss of Divine providence, and he is now subject to the happenings of chance. Well almost. God will make sure that no avenger is able to kill him, since blood vengeance in this instance is not part of the Divine order of justice.

 

Following his abandonment by God, Cain is exiled to the east of the Garden of Eden. Going eastwards is synonymous with leaving the presence of God.11 The exit to the Garden of Eden was also at its easternmost aspect. Adam was sent eastwards. Cain is now even further from the exit of the Garden and even further from the presence of God.

 

These are some of the points that can be derived so far from this story:

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• Human life is sacred.

 

• The crime of murder is so terrible it cannot be atoned for.

 

• There is Divine providence in this world for those who merit it.

 

• Murder severs the connection between man and God and between man and the earth.

 

• To be banished to the east is to lose God’s favor.

 

Where is this story heading?

 

When confronted by God and asked: “Where is Abel your brother?” (ibid 4:9), Cain avoids all responsibility — “Am I my brother’s keeper?” There is no suggestion of remorse. He sees his punishment only in terms of himself - “my iniquity is too great to bear. . . ”  and not in terms of the evil he has committed.   

 

The connection between himself, God and the earth has been severed. He is now a wanderer and a vagrant with no fixed abode on this earth.

 

Nevertheless, there is no turning back civilization. Either he or his son (it is not clear from the text whom) builds a city (ibid 4:17). From a literal perspective, it makes the most sense that Cain’s son built the city (since Cain was a wanderer) and Cain called the city after his son. Further generations become involved in developing the technology by which civilization will progress. Jabal works as a herdsman, Jubal develops musical instruments, and Tubal Cain sharpens copper and iron, presumably for making weapons. By the seventh generation, Lemech will boast to his wives about the murders he has accomplished (ibid 4:23). In effect, Cain’s line is heading towards the moral collapse of society.

 

Eventually, the “land” will reject the entire population of the world and destroy it except for a single family, that of Noah.  

 

However, the trajectory is not entirely downwards. After 130 years, Adam and Eve have another child whom Eve calls Seth:

 

And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son, and she named him Seth, for God Elokim has given (shot) me another seed, instead of Abel, for Cain slew him. And a son was also born to Seth, and he named him Enosh; then began man to call out by the name (likro beshem) of YKVK (ibid 4:25-26).

Eve’s approach to this pregnancy is very different from how she dealt her previous ones. She is no longer sharing her accomplishments with God, but recognizes that this son is entirely from God “For God has provided me another child in place of Abel” (ibid 4:25).

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Seth’s son also recognizes the role of God, and this chapter ends when this son Enosh “began to call out by the name of God“(ibid 4:26). This means proclaiming the existence of God, just as Abraham will do many generations later.12

 

This sets the stage for later generations from the line of Seth in the next chapter. Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam “walked with God” (ibid 5:22). Within ten generations from Adam, Noah will be born. And “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (ibid 5:8). All of Cain’s generations will be completely wiped out in the flood at the time of Noah, but a righteous remnant from the stock of Seth will remain that has knowledge of God. It is this remnant that will save the world.

 

The Torah goes out of its way to emphasize the word “brother.” Hence, early in the story when discussing the birth of Abel: “And again she gave birth to his brother Abel” (ibid 4:2).13 But what else would Abel be but Cain’s brother since they have the same mother? The word “brother” is mentioned seven times in this biblical paragraph. The word Abel is mentioned 7 times, and the word Cain 14 times. When words like this occur seven times, they are functioning as key words.

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Perhaps the Torah is telling us that there is such a thing as the brotherhood of man. The world could have been a different place. Because of his self-centeredness Farmer Cain shattered this brotherhood. It will eventually need a unique person of the stature of Abraham and his nation to begin putting the broken pieces together again.

 

In sum, the Cain and Abel story has added a new dimension to God’s concerns. Unlike the pagan gods of the ancient world, YKVK (and also Elokim) are deeply involved with mankind in the moral status of the world. The rest of the Bible is the sequel to this story.

 

References

1.   A motive is not elaborated on in midrashic sources. That the Bible does not tell us what Cain “said” in verse Genesis 4:8 suggests to Rashi that Cain initiated a meaningless quarrel with Abel as an excuse for killing him, although Rashi does not elaborate on the reason as for this quarrel. R’ D Fohrman in “Of Roses and Triangles” in “The Beast that Crouches at the Door”, p 181, Aleph Beta Press 2011 places the blame on unpremeditated passion. Nahmanides suggests that Cain was jealous and concerned that the world would be built up through Abel’s descendants rather than his own, since God had shown Abel favor.

2. TB Yoma 52b

3.  Translation by ArtScroll Series, The Torah: With Ramban’s Commentary Translated, Annotated, and Elucidated. Bereishis/Genesis, verse 3:7, p137, Mesorah Publications Ltd, 2004

4.  As in “perhaps he will lift up my face” in Job 32:21

5.    This grammatical analysis is pointed out in the chapter “Fratricide and Founding” in “The Beginning of Wisdom. Reading Genesis” by Leon R Kass, p141, The University of Chicago Press 2003.

6.  The Pentateuch, Translation and Commentary by Samson Raphael Hirsch on Genesis 4:7, p102. Judaica Press, United Kingdom, 1989.

7.   R’ Hirsch To Genesis 4:7 quotes one Rabbinic saying from among several about this verse: “R” Simone said: If your evil inclination comes to mock you [and cause you to sin], make him glad with words of Torah, for it says (Is 26:3) “with your controlled sensuality you keep peace” and then it will be reckoned to you as if you were the creator of both worlds, for it does not say you have created peace, but dual peace shalom shalom. And if you say this is beyond your powers, has not God already pronounced in His Torah: “his longing is towards you” (Midrash Rabba 22:6) 

8.  According to Rashi, Radak and Sforno this was a rhetorical question. God was providing Cain with the opportunity to repent. The explanation we have presented, is that once Cain had committed murder, he had forgone the possibility of doing repentance.

9.   The Pentateuch, Translation and Commentary by Samson Raphael Hirsch on Genesis 4:12, p106. Judaica Press, United Kingdom, 1989.

10. This phrase is also found in the priestly blessing – “May God lift His countenance to you …” (Numbers 6:26)

11.  The prime direction in the ancient world until the discovery of magnetic north was the east. In the pagan world, east was the direction from which the gods appeared. The gods slept during the night but awoke at dawn and then appeared in the east. This was why Pagan temples faced towards the east. The Garden of Eden was also in the east (ibid 2:8). However, when man was exiled from the Garden of Eden, the cherubim stood guard from the east of the Garden. (ibid 3:24)  The Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle and later the Temple faced towards the west, thereby distinguishing it from pagan places of worship.  In Jewish thought, the prime direction towards God is to the west. Hence, when Cain moved to the land of Nod east of Eden, he was moving even further from the presence of God. Rabbi Solveitchik states: “When he (Cain) looked upon Eden, his promised land, he faced westwards, towards the horizon in the direction of the setting sun, Similarly, when Moses climbed the mountain to look upon the Land of Israel, he faced westward. … Historically, Israel was exiled to the east, a movement in a direction which represents failure. Repentance represents a return to one’s source, a retracing of one’s steps. On man’s trek westward towards Eden, he stumbled by violating the moral law. He had to go back where he started. The Kabbalistic idea of shechina bma’arav, the Divine Presence being in the west, is a reflection of man’s desire, whether conscious or unconscious, to come closer to God” from “In Chumash with commentary based on the teachings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik”, The Neuwirth Edition. Bereishis, Complied and edited by Dr. Arnold Lustiger, p41, OUPress, First edition 2013. 

12.  The Midrashic interpretation of this phrase is far different from the one presented here. (Bereishis Rabba 23:7, Tanchuma, Noach 18, Targum Yonasana). The Hebrew verb “huchal” can also be interpreted not only as “began” but also as “profaned”. Hence Rashi will explain this verse as “to call me names of men and the names of the icons by the name of the Holy One, Blessed is He, to make of them idols and to call them deities.” This also led Maimonides to write “as time passed, the honored and revered name of God was forgotten by mankind and vanished from their lips and minds and they were unable even to recognize Him.” (Hilchos Avodas Kochavim 1:2). This essay suggests the very opposite, that the knowledge of God was lost by the generations of Cain and it was only the generations of Seth that retained knowledge of God. This in turn was passed on to Noah. The forefathers “calling on the name of God” is mentioned several times in the Torah (Genesis 12:8, 13:4, 21:33, 26:25). There are also other commentators who favor this interpretation rather than the Midrashic one (see Rashbam, Ibn Ezra, Ibn Caspi, Sforno and R’ Hirsch).

13. The Story of Cain and Abel, Introduction, p192 in “A Commentary on the Book of Genesis, Part One. From Adam to Noah” by U Cassuto, p192, First English Edition, The Magnes Press, P.O. Box 7695, Jerusalem 91076, Israel.