It is often discussed how Sefer Bereishis is a historical map for the Jewish people, how everything that occurred to our ancestors repeats through history. That leaves a question. What lessons do we learn from Parshas Bereishis? If you’re laughing because the answer appears to be beyond counting, that is certainly legitimate. We learn about the creation of the world, about mankind’s need to pray, about our responsibility to take care of the world, and etc.
One thing we most certainly learn from the very beginning of
the Torah, from the very beginning of humanity, is that people make mistakes –
some small and some tremendous. But that is a lesson for all of humanity; what
is the lesson for Klal Yisrael?
One might, interestingly enough, look to Kayin for a lesson
that can offer great chizuk to Bnei Yisrael. Cain, as he is called in English,
has an infamous reputation. He murdered his brother in the heat of jealousy –
which of course is a wonderful narrative to pull apart for its intricacies of
human nature. Let us, however, look at the consequence of his actions.
Hashem says to Kayin: “And now, you are cursed even more
than the ground, which opened its mouth to take your brother's blood from your
hand. When you till the soil, it will not continue to give its strength to you;
you shall be a wanderer and an exile in the land” (Bereishis 4:11-12).
This curse is a terrible thing, and all the more so when you
remember that while Hevel had been a shepherd, Kayin had been a farmer. He lost
everything, including his identity. Nevertheless, it is hard to be sympathetic
to a murderer, even if we empathize with some of the emotions that drove him to
act; his conscious decision to strike his brother down refutes that sympathy.
It is Kayin’s reaction to his punishment, however, that holds the important lesson for Bnei
Yisrael.
“And Kayin said to the Lord, ‘My iniquity is too great to
bear? Behold You have driven me today off the face of the earth, and I shall be
hidden from before You, and I will be a wanderer and an exile in the land, and
it will be that whoever finds me will kill me’” (13-14).
Kayin is concerned about the how he will survive in the
world, but first and foremost he is concerned about his relationship with HaKadosh
Baruch Hu. He recognizes in Hashem’s punishment something that Hashem had not explicitly
stated. Hashem never said that Kayin was banished from Hashem’s presence, but
Kayin understood that Hashem had designed the earth to nourish mankind. He
remembered that the world had not grown anything until his father, Adam, had
prayed for rain, and that rain set the growth in motion. Kayin knew that the need
to labor was the consequence of Adam and Chava’s eating of the fruit – but also
that Adam’s labor brought him and all his descendants an appreciation for the
blessings Hashem gave. Now he would be separated from those blessings, a step
removed.
Hashem’s response is to declare “‘Therefore, whoever kills Kayin,
vengeance will be wrought upon him sevenfold," and the Lord placed a mark
on Kayin that no one who find him slay him” (4:14).
What is the lesson here? Of course, we know that it is never
too late to call out to Hashem; it’s never too late to do teshuva. But on a
larger scale, we, Bnei Yisrael, are in a similar position. We have sinned –
sinned to such an extent that we have been exiled. We know that Hashem has
hidden His face from us and that the nations turn an unkind eye towards us,
revile us, and seek to do us ill knowing, on a metaphysical level, that Hashem
has turned his face away.
However, when we call out as Kayin did – putting the
perspective first and foremost on our relationship with Hashem rather than on
our worldly situation, Hashem provides the protection we need.
I wish you all a beautiful Shabbas.
