Dvar Torah on Parashat Bereshit (Genesis 1:1 – 6:8)
Given at Temple Israel on Friday evening 10/13/23
I don’t need to tell you -- this past week has been a waking nightmare, as we continue to reel from the horrors of the atrocities committed by Hamas against the people of Israel --- and as we cope with the moral complexities of Israel’s military response against Hamas that unavoidably impacts Gazan civilians as well.
But the week before that was ZEMAN SIMCHATEINU – The Season of our Rejoicing – The Festival of Ingathering – The Feast of Tabernacles -- CHAG HA-SUKKOT
It’s traditional to read Megillat Kohelet/ The Book of Ecclesiastes during Sukkot. I didn’t program that into our Shabbat services during Sukkot this year (We usually do so on the intermediate Sabbath of Sukkot – but this year there was no Intermediate Sabbath since it started on Shabbat and it was over with the onset of the next Shabbat.)
Still, I do have a personal practice of reading Ecclesiastes while I eat lunch in a sukkah during the week.
This year as in every year, it jumps out at me how often the narrator of Ecclesiastes (which tradition identifies as King Solomon) talks about how so many things in life were mere vanities.
Right at the start he says --- “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit does a person have for all their labors under the sun. A generation passes away and another generation comes, and the earth abides forever.” (Eccl. 1:2-4)
The Hebrew word translated here as “vanity” is “Hevel” -- which can also be translated as “futility”. It occurs 38 times in the book of Ecclesiastes. The word also has the sense of “air” or “breath” or “vapor.”
That word --- HEVEL – provides a direct connection between Megillat Kohelet and this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Bereshit, which features a character whose name is “HEVEL”
If you’re accustomed to encountering the Torah only in English and not in the original Hebrew, then the name “Hevel” might not ring a bell.
You’re probably more familiar with Hevel by the way his name generally gets rendered into English: Abel -- as in the younger of those first two brothers in history – Cain and Abel.
Tradition says that King Solomon wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes when he was an old man, and the mood of that book implies that King Solomon was somewhat jaded and despairing. Thirty-eight times he speaks of human strivings as being “vanity” or “futility”. But in the Hebrew, in each of these plaintive expressions, we hear the name “Hevel”, that is to say “Abel” --- each time being an invocation of the name of the first murder victim.
Why did Cain murder Abel?
The Torah in this week’s portion, Parashat Bereshit, is laconic, as it often is….
As we read in Genesis 4:1-10 ---
1 And the man knew Eve his wife; and she conceived and bore Cain, and said: 'I have gotten a man with the help of Adonai.' 2 And again she bore his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 3 And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought some of the fruit of the ground an offering to Adonai. 4 And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And Adonai paid heed to Abel and to his offering; 5 but to Cain and his offering paid no heed. And Cain was very distressed, and his face fell. 6 And Adonai said to Cain: 'Why are you distressed? and why is your face fallen? 7 Surely, if you do right, There is uplift. But if you do not do right well, sin crouches at the door; its urge is toward you but you can be its master.' 8 And Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and killed him. 9 And Adonai said to Cain: 'Where is Abel your brother?' And he said: 'I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?' 10 And Adonai said: 'What have you done? the voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.
It’s an ambiguous text. Why did God reject Cain’s offering in the first place?
Perhaps Abel put more thought into his offering since it says that he brought “the firstlings of his flock” while Cain simply brought some of the fruit of the ground – not necessarily the best of the crop.
But did that give Cain a reason for murdering his brother?
Of course not – and yet his feelings of jealousy and of having been treated unjustly left him susceptible to acting out with his worse instincts.
The translation I just read smoothes over some of the ambiguities of the original Hebrew . The biggest ambiguity comes in verse 8.
The translation above says “And Cain spoke to Abel his brother” but the Hebrew is “Vayomer Kayin el Hevel achiv” which would more typically be translated as “Cain said to Abel his brother.” Which would prompt us to ask the question?
Well, what did Cain say?
The Torah doesn’t tell us. It just leaves it as a sentence fragment.
However, in Bereshit Rabbah, the classic midrash collection, the rabbis say that Cain and Abel had an argument out there in the field. And what did they argue about? The midrash offers several possibilities, none of which touch upon the previous incident of God favoring Abel’s offering to Cain’s offering. But, with the Mideast situation this week at the top of our minds, the first of the explanations in the midrash resonates most strongly:
עַל מָה הָיוּ מִדַּיְּנִים, אָמְרוּ בּוֹאוּ וְנַחֲלֹק אֶת הָעוֹלָם, אֶחָד נָטַל הַקַּרְקָעוֹת וְאֶחָד נָטַל אֶת הַמִּטַּלְטְלִין, דֵּין אָמַר אַרְעָא דְּאַתְּ קָאֵם עֲלָהּ דִּידִי, וְדֵין אָמַר מַה דְּאַתְּ לָבֵישׁ דִּידִי, דֵּין אָמַר חֲלֹץ, וְדֵין אָמַר פְּרַח, מִתּוֹךְ כָּךְ (בראשית ד, ח): וַיָּקָם קַיִן אֶל הֶבֶל אָחִיו וַיַּהַרְגֵּהוּ,
– about what were they quarreling? They said: ‘Let us divide the world between us.’ One took the land and one took the movable property. This one said: ‘The land on which you are standing is mine.’ That one said: ‘What you are wearing is mine.’ That one said: ‘Take it off.’ This one said: ‘Fly.’ As a result: “Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.”[1]
Sad to say, this is the way of the world. Cain and Abel have their counterparts in every generation. We let jealousy, property fights and religious disputes lead us to that most egregious of sins – murder.
Hamas claims that the entirety of Eretz Yisrael – from the River to the Sea – belongs to the Palestinian Arab people – and that it should be run as an Islamic State. They are willing to murder and kidnap civilians – men, women and children – to achieve this aim.
As for Israel, the connection of the Jewish people to the same land stretches back over two thousand years prior to the birth of Islam. Theologically, it’s enshrined in the promises recorded in the Book of Genesis from God to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
And Rashi, our pre-eminent medieval commentator, writing in the 11th century, devotes his very first comment on the very first word of the very first word of the Toray --- BERESHIT – “IN THE BEGINNING” to this matter:
Here’s Rashi’s comment on Genesis 1 verse 1 –
בראשית In the beginning: Said Rabbi Isaac: It was not necessary to begin the Torah except from “This month is to you,” (Exod. 12:2) which is the first commandment that the Israelites were commanded, Now for what reason did He commence with “In the beginning?” Because of [the verse] “The strength of His works He related to His people, to give them the inheritance of the nations” (Ps. 111:6). For if the nations of the world should say to Israel, “You are robbers, for you conquered by force the lands of the seven nations [of Canaan],” they will reply, "The entire earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it and gave it to whomever He deemed proper When He wished, He gave it to them, and when He wished, He took it away from them and gave it to us.
Needless to say, but I’ll say it anyway, the modern State of Israel relies on secular justifications for its existence. Whatever one thinks of Biblical accounts of Divine promises, the fact is that HISTORICALLY this was the home of the Jewish people. And it’s the place in which the ancient Israelite kingdoms were situated. And we were exiled from our land due to foreign oppressors. And Zionism represents our return, as an indigenous people, to our homeland – complete with the Renaissance of our ancient language HEBREW.
But even the Hebrew Bible recounts various different geographical boundaries of Ancient Israel.
And even the Talmud praises the value of COMPROMISE.
And the value of peaceful resolution of disputes.
And the value of religious freedom.
And the value of the inherent worth of every person.
If Hamas could agree to those values, we’d have an excellent basis for a negotiated settlement.
In the meantime, we’re facing a tragedy of epic proportions.
The name HEVEL, Abel, translates as an insubstantial wisp.
May the prospect of peace, justice and security for all inhabitants of the region no longer remain a mere הֲבֵ֥ל הֲבָלִ֖ים (havel havalim) --- no longer a futile vain wisp of a dream, but rather the HOPE – Hatikvah --- that we may see in our time.
Shabbat Shalom.
© Rabbi David Steinberg (Tishri 5784/ October 2023)
[1] Bereshit Rabbah 22:7
