Cain Cursed: Punishment or Repentance?

Torah Study notes 10.17

Genesis 4:10-15

More etymology focus: Hebrew is a language where the structure can add value to the interpretation.

“Kol” or voice as used in relation to the blood of Abel. But in this grammatical form “kol” is more of an exclamation like “hark”. Although there are many other places in Torah and Bible that ‘kol’ does refer to ‘voice’.

However there is still the image that the “blood cries out”. Rabbi Marder alluded to the image from the Holocaust also where it seemed that the blood cried out from the ground that held the dead.

The term ‘cry out’ has a ‘legal structure’ in the language which makes the meaning imply a cry of injustice. This is also used in other references like the slaves in Egypt or as reference to the ill-treated orphans and widows or the suffering of defenseless victims.
There is no other recourse than to ‘cry out to God’.

‘Kol’ previously referred to the sound of God in Eden. Now it is the sound of the life force in Abel – the Devine crying out from the earth.

Verse 11: Punishment: "Now you shall be more cursed than (from) the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.”

(other Bible translations )

Three interpretations of the words “than the ground” “from the ground” –

• Rashi – More cursed than the ground
• Cursed from the ground – no longer can farm this land
• From the ground – the earth curses you, Cain.

Related verse: Numbers 35:33

So you shall not pollute the land in which you are; for blood pollutes the land and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it.

This is the call for capital punishment that later the Rabbi’s interpreted in a way to make it very difficult to implement.

It was pointed out that the relationship with the ‘ground’ has changed over time. However we still mark the place where people have died in a respectful way.

Banishment is a form of punishment that is repeated in Torah. “loss of home” happens again and again.

This punishment marks the first ‘curse’ on a person in Torah. Eve or Adam were never cursed! Thus the concept of the menstrual cycle as being ‘Eve’s Curse’ is totally wrong!

Punishment:
Cain can no longer be a farmer. He is sent into exile. He must be an eternal wanderer without the security of a home.

Nature of the Crime:
Blood was Shed = Exile

We discussed the different definitions of murder.
Irene B. sent me clearer definitions:

Homicide – killing of one human by another Homicide can be excusable (as with a surgery gone wrong) or Justifiable (as in self defense, or defense of others) These types of killings (above) are not considered criminal homicide. MURDER requires malice (intent to kill). 1st degree murder is defined by statute. Means only what is defined by law such as murder with premeditation, shown perhaps by a killer who laid in wait. It is also defined as death occurring as a result of or during the commission of a named felony (such as rape, or burglary) [This is what allows the get away driver to be charged with murder when he wasn’t even in the bank.] 2nd degree murder is all murder that is not first degree murder (and does not fall into the Voluntary manslaughter category). MANSLAUGHTER Voluntary: intentional killing is classified as voluntary manslaughter if there was adequate provocation, (e.g. you just found out the killer of your child was talking with you) and you lashed out in the heat of anger, no time to cool off. Involuntary. If an unintended killing was a result of an unlawful act (e.g. reckless driving caused fatal car accident) OR a lawful act performed in a criminally negligent manner it’s involuntary manslaughter. (criminally negligent means with wanton disregard of the safety and life of others)

Cain’s crime was not 1st degree –
He was not aware of the consequences
He did not receive any warnings of consequences
There were no witnesses
His crime was more like 'Involuntary Manslaughter'.

Later in Numbers 35 this was covered with the creation of the Cities of Refuge for the manslayer.

So Cain is banished and becomes a wanderer. And he was alone.
In those times banishment was probably a death sentence because there was a reliance on others for survival.

Cain addresses God again:

It could be a statement or a question in different interpretations.

1. My sin is too great to bear – he is overwhelmed
2. My punishment is too great to bear.
3. Is my sin to great to be forgiven?

Different moods of Cain:

1. Protest or Anger
2. Anguish
3. Desperate plea for forgiveness.

Rashi asks God – ‘if you can carry the world, can you not forgive?’

Cain is a symbol for repentance.

R. Norman Cohen points out that Cain had to carry Able with him as he was a wanderer.

Another midrash I found on this subject from R. Cohen:

In midrash Beresheit Rabbah 22, we are told that when Adam
met Cain after the death of Abel he says in wonderment, Is that you? I
thought God had killed you. Cain tells him that when he said to God
that his sin (or punishment) was too much for him to bear and God
accepted him. Adam said that if he had known the power of repentance
then he would still be in the Garden of Eden.

Cain was willing to admit his guilt and therefore shows he is repentant.

R. Cohen asks: Do we believe that people can change?
Cain challenges us to change
Tshuvah is a process that allows us to change and shows that it is achievable.

(side notes: googling Rabbi Norman Cohen’s question – I found links to several ‘Rabbis for Obama’ sites)

Rabbis want to see Cain as a symbol of a desire for repentance.
Cain is vulnerable. He is banished from God’s presence. It is too painful for Cain to be in God’s presence.

Different levels of interpretation of Torah:

1. Plain sense
2. Hint or illusion
3. Drash or seromonic
4. Mystical

Cain is terrorized and afraid. He now sees death as a possibility in the future.

References:
The Mark of Cain
by Ruth Mellinkoff


(another reference to the play CAIN 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, SUMMARY )
excerpt and link to excerpts of the script