Anger, Expectations and Responses

Genesis 4:6-9 – Rabbi Marder led a lively discussion
Oh those well known questions:
“Why are you angry?”
“Am I my brother’s keeper?”

(found this interesting website on various points of view of this story)

A focus on anger and how it can lead to dangerous other emotions.
A feeling of loss that leads to sadness contrasts to an experience of insult that gives rise to anger.

Leon Kass – The Beginning of Wisdom Reading Genesis
contemporary commentator from U of Chicago discusses the link between anger and revenge. In the case of Cain’s anger being directed at his brother rather than on God.

“The greater the self regard the bigger the anger and resentment”

And the lesson from this class: “TO GET CONTROL OF ANGER YOU MUST LOWER YOUR EXPECTATIONS!”

You will feel less angry if you don’t feel that the world owes you anything!

Look at yourself to decide if you are expecting too much.

Rabbi Norman Cohen (HUC) on the Anger of Cain gave a lesson on ‘living outside the garden’ pointing out that life is fraught with inequities. We all make sacrifices without recognition. The challenge is to learn to live with ambivalence.

In the case of Cain he was not able to handle rejection and move on. It brings up the question of how to respond to the injustice in the world. How to control our responses?

(aside tangent: The whole Torah is filled with conflicts between brothers – until the end when Moses and Aaron learn to live as brothers and resolve their conflicts amicably. )

Book: Games People Play by Eric M. D. Berne
Summary at this site is good

Origins of resentment, Misdirected anger and explanations of war and murder were all noted.

Jay Jackman (Psychiatrist) explained from his reference point of having worked with murder cases: A single episode does not provoke murder in most cases. We don’t have enough information to really speculate on Cain’s ongoing relationship with Abel to really understand the motivation for killing.

Most current commentaries point to the sense of resentment that is evident and emphasize our ability to get past it rather than translating it into malicious behavior.

NEXT VERSE: Genesis 4:8 The missing words – What did he say?
“And Cain talked with Abel his brother and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him”

One of those sites that translates word for word from all different Bibles: (still hard to figure out)

It does not tell what he said and there are different theories about this:

• The scribe left out the words.
• Rabbis speculation

a: divide the world over property – moveable or not b: In my domain the Temple will be built / Religion c: about Eve or the women

• - that is the 3 motives for bloodshed: economics, religion and sex.

• Rashi – this is a pretext for an argument – Cain shows he was seeking a quarrel.

Where did this killing happen? In the field.
The field is ‘out of sight’ so there is an implication that something wrong will happen. The ‘field’ is often the scene of a crime – it is away from the population.

Another point is that the field is the source of Cain’s sacrifice to God.

Some say there are no missing words – that it implies ‘mute rage’.

Cain Rose Up – another term with different interpretations and even a Steven King story
Which was also made into a movie in 1999! And another interpretation in literature: "Cain Rose Up against Abel": Murder, Mystery, and Paradise Lost
Journal article by Cheryl H. Fresch; Christianity and Literature, Vol. 51, 2002.

Abel is referred to as his brother 7 times. (This has many different interpretations also – and we will find more references to “seven” very soon that might be connected)

Norman Cohen notes that Cain may have been reaching out to his brother OR then again it may have been anger.

There is no response from Abel either. Both are silent and Both may bear some guilt.

(another reference to the play by Lord Byron where Cain and Abel were grown and had families by the time of the killing: Mentioned: Lord Byron’s Play from 1821, Cain SUMMARY )

“Rose Up” - We started to explore what this might mean both literal and interpretively.
We ask what can we learn from this? Both from the behavior of Cain and from God’s behavior in the situation.

This commentary found on the web describes the interpretation by Barbara Sutnick closely to what was discussed in class - read more on this at the link:

“We are told nothing of the relationship between Adam and Eve and their sons, and also very little about that between Cain and Abel. The text is curt to the point of obscurity in describing their confrontation: "And Cain [said] to his brother Abel when they were in the field, and Cain arose [to] Abel and slew him" (vs. 8). This is a verse that clearly calls out DaRSHeni! ("explain me!") Rashi says that although there were many midrashim written to flesh out their conversation, the plain meaning is that Cain first started to argue with Abel, began to get rough, and then killed him.

Abel and Cain's disagreements must have begun long before. Picking up on the natural rancor between shepherds and farmers, we read in the midrash that one day one of Abel's sheep trampled over one of Cain's fields. Cain raged at his brother "what right have you to let your sheep pasture in my garden?" Abel retorted: "What right have you to use the products of my sheep to make your garments and your tents?" (Yasher Bereshit 9a) This midrash underscores the sad fact that although shepherds and farmers are natural rivals, they are also inter-dependent. The farmer needs the wool and meat that the sheep provides; the shepherd and his animals need to eat the farm produce. The division of labor that characterizes human civilization creates competing interests at the same time that it multiplies conveniences and products for all.

A series of midrashim in Bereshit Rabba (22, 16) attempt to explain what the brothers were arguing about. It all began with the brothers' effort to divide the world between them. One took the lands and the other took the moveable goods. Then one said "the land on which you are standing is mine - get off!"; and the other replied "the clothes you are wearing are mine - take them off!" In the course of this, Cain slew his brother. A second midrash sees it another way: They both took land and movables. What they were fighting about was upon whose field will the Temple come to be built. A third explanation is that they were disputing over Eve.

Nehama Leibowitz points out that these three midrashim explain what is at the root of mankind's sorry tendency toward bloodshed and murder. . .”

We can ask what might have worked better!

More related interesting websites found on this search:
http://tinyurl.com/3krs29
http://tinyurl.com/4zkkah


We can ask what might have worked better!