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We can master sin
Torah Study
RABBI SHLOMO RISKIN
Breshith/Genesis 1:1-6:8
Adam and Eve sin against God - and perhaps against themselves. Cain sins against - even slays - his brother, and so begins the very checkered and frustrating history of humanity.
But before Cain commits this act of murder, the Almighty teaches him a lesson in human nature, a lesson that can greatly benefit us today.
Cain has brought a sacrifice to God "from the fruit of the soil". His brother, Abel, on the other hand, has given God "the choicest of the firstlings of his flock." The Almighty looks with favor upon Abel and his offering, but not so upon Cain and his offering.
Cain, obviously smitten with jealousy, becomes angry, his face crestfallen. The Divine's response, a commentary on both human weakness and potential strength, is one of the most difficult, most important, verses in the Bible:
"Surely, if you do right, there is uplift. But if you do not do right, sin couches at the door; its urge is toward you, yet you can be its master" (Genesis 4:7).
Rav Meir Lubush, in a modern commentary known as the Malbim, interprets the verse as God saying Cain should forget about Divine acceptance of the offerings and concentrate upon proper actions. In the final analysis, it is your deeds to your fellow humans, not your gifts to God, which will either bring you near to or distance you from the Divine.
Targum, Rashi and the Ibn Ezra have another interpretation. According to them, God is telling Cain that, despite the fact that he sinned by bringing an inadequate offering, if he will do well from now on, he will be forgiven (and his face will be lifted); if, however, he does not repent and do well, then sin will crouch at his doorstep and desire his ensnarement.
Earlier, in the creation narrative, we read in Genesis, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26).
Nachmanides suggests that the Almighty is addressing the physical creation that he's already made, the animals and the beasts who are limited in time and strength; physical creatures who are born, develop, wither and die; who require nutrition, rest, secretion, excretion, and sexual reproduction. "Let us make human beings in our image," says God to these creatures. "The human being will be subject to the same limitations and drives you are subject to, but at the same time - since he/she will also be created in my image - he/she will have the capacity to love, to create, to choose and even to transcend human weaknesses."
Then God commands: "They (humans) shall rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the cattle, the whole earth and all the creeping things that creep on earth" (Genesis 1:26).
The Hebrew word for rule, v'yirdu, can also mean "to descend." The very ability the human being has to rise above his animal instincts can also cause him to sink to levels of depravity far below an animal's capacity.
In Zvi Kolitz's "Yosel Rakover's Appeal to God," a fictionalized account of notes found in the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, he writes: "The beasts of the field in their freedom and gentleness seem to be so lovable and dear that I feel a deep pain whenever I hear the evil fiends that lord it over Europe referred to as beasts. It is untrue that the tyrant who rules over Europe now has something of the beast in him. He is a typical child of modern man; mankind as a whole spawned him and reared him."
Kolitz is saying that when we call the Nazis beasts, we insult animals. Like all human beings, the Nazis were created in the image of God, but they descended to levels of cruelty far lower than the capability of beasts. Yet the most fundamental essence and distinction of the human being remains the Divine image within him.
God tells Cain that even though his offering was brought with the wrong intention, he will be forgiven. God loves you even after you've sinned. It's not too late. All you have to do is repent, begin to do good deeds, and then your downcast face will become uplifted, and you will be purified.
Undoubtedly, repentance is difficult. "Sin couches at the door." But God bears testimony at the very dawn of human history: "You can be its master."
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is the spiritual leader of the Jewish community in Efrat, Israel.
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