Tag Archives: Evil Inclination

Cain and Abel: A New Understanding

This week we restart the Torah reading cycle with Beresheet. One of the most complex, mysterious, and intriguing passages in the parasha is the story of Cain and Abel. The entire account gets only 17 verses total. First, Cain has a bright idea to bring Hashem an offering—the first time we hear of such a concept explicitly in the Torah. Abel then copies his brother, and gets rewarded for it, while Hashem seemingly ignores Cain’s offering. This upsets Cain and he is “greatly distressed” (Genesis 4:5). Hashem asks Cain why he is so upset. “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.” (v. 7)

The next thing we are told is that Cain is speaking to Abel, and suddenly “rises up” to kill him. God questions Cain, points out the blood of Abel calling out, and then curses Cain to be a wanderer upon the Earth. Cain’s response is that “my sin is too great to bear!” (v. 13) Cain worries that once he becomes a defenceless wanderer, anyone who finds him will kill him. God promises to give Cain a protective mark. Cain then goes to live in the land of Nod, gets married, has a son called Hanokh (“Enoch”, not to be confused with the other, more famous Enoch who never died), and builds a city that he names after his son (v. 17). That’s the whole narrative, and it brings up numerous big questions:

  1. Why and how did Cain kill Abel?
  2. When God asks Cain “where is your brother?”, Cain answers that he doesn’t know. How could Cain blatantly lie to God? Is he not aware of the basic fact that God is omniscient? Did he learn nothing from his parents (Adam and Eve) who tried to hide from God?
  3. On that note, Cain is clearly on a high prophetic level, able to communicate openly and directly with God. He seemingly invents the concept of offerings to Hashem, and later admits that his “sin is too great to bear”. This does not sound like an evil person. On the contrary, it sounds like someone who deeply wishes to serve God, and who is remorseful and repentant. Which is it? Who was Cain really?
  4. Cain worries that if he becomes a wanderer, “hidden from God’s face” (4:14) and without God’s protection, anyone who finds him will kill him. If there are no other humans besides Cain, Adam, and Eve at this point, who is he worried about? And who, exactly, did he end up marrying?
  5. Finally, despite being cursed to wander, we are told that Cain did not actually become a wanderer at all and, on the contrary, build the first human city! Why was his curse not realized? And why did he build a city? Why is a whole city necessary for a single family? And why did he specifically name his city Hanokh?

To answer the first question, the commentaries provide several answers. Continue reading →

What Exactly is the Yetzer HaRa?

This week’s parasha, Ki Tetze, begins by describing the procedure when Israelite men “go out to war” and encounter a beautiful woman behind enemy lines. The Torah permits taking this woman for a wife, but on condition that the soldier waits for one month. He is to bring her to his home, where she shaves her head and cuts her nails while mourning for a month for the loss of her family. Only then, if the soldier still wants her, he can take her as a wife. If he no longer wants her, then she is to be set free unconditionally. The Torah cautions that she must not be treated as a slave or sold. A big question here is: is the soldier permitted to have relations with the “beautiful captive” immediately, or must he wait one month until she is eligible to be his wife? Continue reading →

Counter-Sefirot and the Seven Chambers of Hell

This week’s parasha, Ki Tavo, records some of Moses’ final instructions to the people before his passing, and what the nation should do upon entering the Holy Land. Among these things is to have the Twelve Tribes divided upon two mountains, and pronounce a set of curses and blessings. The Torah records a total of 11 distinct curses. Although the word “cursed” appears twelve times, the last instance is only a general statement that “Cursed be the one who does not uphold the words of this Torah, to fulfill them…”

In his mystical commentary on this week’s parasha (in Sha’ar HaPesukim), the Arizal explains that the 11 curses are neutralized by the 11 ingredients of the special Ketoret incense. Similarly, they are blocked by the 11 curtains of the Mishkan. Why specifically 11? The Arizal explains that just as there are Ten Sefirot in the realm of holiness, there are ten opposing “counter-Sefirot” forces in the realm of kelipah, the unholy “husks”. These ten counter-Sefirot have an additional 11th source which gives them energy, since they are otherwise empty on their own. This is unlike the holy Sefirot, each of which is imbued with, and shines forth, its own unique energy and light. Having said that, among the Sefirot there is indeed an eleventh aspect, too, which is the unifying Da’at (itself portrayed as only the inverse of Keter).

Although Rabbi Chaim Vital records little else in Sha’ar HaPesukim that the Arizal said on Ki Tavo, we do know that the Arizal’s source for the counter-Sefirot was actually the Zohar—not on this week’s parasha, but on parashat Pekudei. In one of the longest, most complex, and most esoteric passages of the Zohar (starting at II, 242b), we learn about the energies that oppose (and, in some ways, balance out) the Sefirot in the realm of the Sitra Achra, the “Other Side”. Making sense of the Zohar’s cryptic language is a huge challenge, and I hope to do it some justice in the overview that follows. Continue reading →