Questions on Brothers and Responsibility

Genesis 4:8-12 – Rabbi Marder discussed Cain’s ‘sin’ - or was it?

God asks “What have you done?” (as if he doesn’t know)

Cain answers with a question: “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

Are God’s words the word of conscious? That ‘small voice’ inside of us? This isn’t very effective when someone is enraged.

There is so much commentary on the murder or killing itself including whether it is a murder or not.

There is also the ‘pun’ that Cain beat Able to death with a cain.

This also deals with the issue of ‘what is sin’?

What is Eve’s reaction?
Should we be sympathetic toward Cain?

Rabbi Eli Munk (1900 – 1978) the Kabalistic point of view that asks for justification from God for Abel’s death. Possibly Abel became arrogant after his sacrifice was accepted. (it doesn’t say)
However there is a thought that Abel’s short life became Moses’ long one and that Abel’s soul was reincarnated as Moses.

Book reference regarding moral relavisim:

Icon of Evil
Hitler's Mufti and the Rise of Radical Islam
Written by David G. Dalin and John F. Rothmann

Different theories about the question “Where is your brother?”
- Cain ran away and didn’t know what happened
- Cain buried his brother
- Cain honestly did not know because he didn’t know about death

Midrash that this is where they learned to bury the dead. As they watched animals do this and they copied them.

Another interesting part found about this story in the qur’an:

According to the Qur'an, it was Cain who buried Abel, and he was prompted to do so by a single raven scratching the ground, on God's command. The Qur'an states that upon seeing the raven, Cain regretted his action [al-Ma'idah:27-31], and that rather than being cursed by God, since he hadn't done so before, God chose to create a law against murder: from interesting website with different points of view and interesting related art

Leon Kass – says that it is clear that the murder in premeditated

And Cain appointed a place where to meet Abel his brother [literally, "And said (vayomer) Cain to (el) Abel his brother"], and it happened when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against [el] Abel his brother, and killed him.

Cain uses his reason to help take his revenge. He plans the event, employs speech to arrange Abel's presence, and picks a place out in the fields where no one will see and where no one can come to Abel's rescue. But if reason is the instrument, jealousy remains the likely motive: the hated rival is removed.

Is the fact that murder is wrong an instinctual part of being human or is it learned? We know that guilt and shame are learned but it is not so clear about the basic knowledge that murder is not acceptable behavior.

Rashi – is a softer view – Cain could repent.
Lebowitz – there is no sign of remorse in this case.

About Brothers – here is another web article that is of interest

Who is my brother’s keeper – is the question that is answered throughout the Torah.


The word “brother” is repeated seven times in this story – does that imply responsibility for brothers? Does this extend beyond siblings to the ‘greater’ brotherhood of mankind?

Is the question again a ‘soft startup’ for a conversation? Like how God asked Adam about what he had done and then asks Cain where his brother is, possibly this is just an entry to a way to talk about what happened.

(How we know it is a question? By the hay in front of the word that grammatically indicates a question in Hebrew)

Rashi says that Cain just misunderstood and acted as if he could deceive God.

Different thoughts imply that God never instructed them to take care of each other.
Cain didn’t know that what he did was wrong.

Brings up the question if morality preceded religion. Is it instinctual that we are to take care of each other?

Leon Kass – We don’t know what happens when someone dies. When Cain answers possibly he is really asking that question – where is the soul of Abel?

When one answers a question with a question it is a way to deflect responsibility. We have a tendency to ‘rearrange reality’ to deflect guilt. (example of a car accident)

Sol Wasserman’s explanation says that the response we see indicates that Cain didn’t have a good childhood. AND he reminds us that the parents in this case really didn’t have a role model or family connections to support them along the way!

This supports the more radical point of view that the whole incident is “God’s fault”.

Bad parenting is to blame for many wrongs! And in this case God has made mistakes!

Nehama Leibowitz says, the rabbis were not so concerned here with explaining the biblical verse as with eliciting universal truths from it. Cain and Abel represent Everyman. "They" were arguing about anything and everything, since that is what human beings do. When the stakes become very high, and the arguments grow too passionate, violence and death can be the expected outcomes.

Another example is the comparison of this incident to athletes competing for the king when the defeated athlete is dying and cries out to blame the king – because he could have stopped it. The Rabbis act as Cain’s lawyers in the case of Abel’s death and point blame to God.

However, the incident with Cain killing Abel teaches that we are accountable for our own sins and … “with that we move into Yom Kippur”.