Sacred Service
Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein
As is so often the case in Sefer Bereishit, we are presented with models of different family relationships. In Parshat Bereishit, we have the first set of brothers and, almost predictably, the first instance of sibling rivalry. Let us remind ourselves of the facts leading to this rivalry and its tragic result.
Cain and Abel, the first two sons of Adam and Eve, were the first brothers and only human beings beside their parents, to exist on earth. Cain, the older brother, becomes a farmer, while Abel becomes a shepherd. After some time, Cain has a wonderful idea. It would be fitting to bring an offering to Hashem. He brings some produce and offers it to God. Abel, seeing this, is also moved to bring an offering to God. Abel offers God the choicest firstlings of his flock. Hashem turns to Abel and his offering and rejects Cain’s offering. Cain is upset. Hashem responds to Cain’s reaction by telling him that he can improve, he can be forgiven. He can conquer the sin crouching at his door, waiting for an opportunity to overpower him. That power lies within him. However, the resentment festers within Cain until an argument arises between the two brothers, and Cain kills Abel.
Before we analyze these events, it is important to remember, as Rabbi Pam zt”l points out, that whatever the Torah records is not merely a story, but is meant to teach us many lessons. The lessons can be derived by seeing the characters both as individuals and as prototypes. Our first reactions must be to ascertain what are the overriding questions this interaction poses.
First, as Rabbi Nevenzahl points out, we can perhaps understand why Cain felt slighted. After all, bringing the offering was his idea; Abel then copied it. Why did Hashem choose Abel’s gift over his? And the follow up question is why indeed did Hashem choose Abel’s offering over Cain's?
The Slonimer Rebbe zt”l points out in Netivot Shalom, that our Sages deduce that by contrasting Abel’s bringing “from the fruit/produce of the ground” with Abel’s bringing “from the firstlings of the flock and the choicest,” that Cain brought something almost worthless, flaxseed, in contrast to Abel’s offering of the choicest. Therefore, based on the thought behind the offerings, Hashem chose Abel’s offering. And it is from this first conflict, tells us the Zohar, that we are prohibited from wearing shatnez, the combination of linen from the flax plant and wool from sheep in the same garment. Yet, in contrast, the garments of the kohein gadol himself contain shatnez.
Rabbi Pam also derives from this that when performing any mitzvah we should attempt to perform it in the most beautiful way, not lackadaisically, whether it is a mitzvah between man and God, or between man and his fellow man. When we feed the poor, how much more beautiful is it to give fresh food rather than our leftovers, or help the needy (whether financially or with a service) with a smile. Cain’s offering was sorely lacking in this emotional aspect, a necessary component of the mitzvah, writes Rabbi Yerucham Levovitz shatnes.
According to Rabbi Nevenzahl, Able did not purposely take the lowest kind of vegetation, generally referred to as flaxseed, but just took whatever his hand pulled out first, thoughtlessly. [Think of a groom giving his best man money to pick up a gift for his fiancee. When the thought must count, one must count the thought. CKS] An offering must reflect one’s inner connection. Any positive action consists of three parts – the action itself, the method used, and the intention. When doing something, especially for Hashem, one must do it the best way possible with the purest and deepest intention. Being remiss in any of these steps is a result of laziness. Hashem has no need of our gifts; it is we who need to want to give it. Our emotional desire is reflected in the effort we put into choosing our gift and in how we present it.. This is how we demonstrate our love and honor for Hashem.
It is in this vein that we can understand why the High Priest’s garment was shatnez, made with both wool and linen. The Kohei Gadol’s garment were a symbolic repair of Cain’s sin resulting from the conflict between the brothers.
The truth is that light and darkness both exist within a person, tells us Rabbi Shmulevitz shatnes in Sichot Mussar. Cain is the perfect example. The beautiful thought of bringing an offering to Hashem arose in Cain’s mind. With so much available, how could he have decided to bring the minimum, the least important gift from the land? Because conflicting with that thought was the element of selfishness, of wanting to keep the best for oneself. How often do we each face similar conflicts. We know what we should do, but don’t want to do it, so we do it as minimally as would suffice. That is the darkness, the same darkness that manifests itself when Hashem asked, “Where is Abel your brother?” Cain knew he cannot fool Hashem, but he wanted to convince himself that he was not responsible for his brother’s death. Darkness is not the absence of light, but an energy with power and influence in its own right.
We are meant to work on ourselves not just by adding more light, by doing more mitzvoth, but also by removing the darkness within ourselves.
When that first child was born, Chavah named him Cain, writes the Imrei Chen, to imply that she had acquired him to serve Hashem. But Cain thought otherwise. Since his father was punished that the earth would be cursed for him, Cain felt obligated to become a farmer, to work that earth and mitigate that punishment. But working requires constant attention, leaving little time for contemplation. In contrast, Abel become a shepherd, an occupation that left him much time to introspect and contemplate his place in the world and his relationship with his Creator.
This lesson is true in any endeavor. You must dedicate time to that in which you want to succeed. Especially in Torah study, it is not enough to have the innate talent and work on study merely as an intellectual exercise. The forty-eight paths of acquiring Torah are focused on middos, on character development. You must remove the distractions that are blocking you from connecting to Hashem, much as you would remove the triggers from an addict, the alcohol from an alcoholic.
It is human nature to want the best for oneself. While Cain wanted to bring more light into the world, to bring more mitzvoth and offerings to Hashem, he did not work on removing the darkness.
It is this human egotistical desire that became the source of the conflict, writes Rabbi Bick shatnez. Both Cain and Abel wanted to claim the honor of bringing an offering to Hashem to the exclusion of the other. Automatic conflict.
Abel saw his offering, his korban, as the most unique sacrifice. Rashi clarified that Abel’s offering was simple flaxseed, pishton/פשתן. Rabbi Shapiro zt”l in Mimaamakim explains how Abel arrived at this choice. If we take the word קרבן and write each letter as if it were a full word, we would see that the final letters spell out פשתן = קוף ריש בית נון. Abel, also wanting to be unique, chose wool which is the opposite of linen.
How is linen unique? Rabbi Shapiro explains that flax, the linen plant, grows on individual stalks. It doesn’t absorb colors. The threads, if left folded or extended over time, will crack, and therefore are not easily connected. In fact, the trousers the kohein wore were made from linen/bad, a shortened form of levad/lone. In contrast, as the wool grows on the backs of sheep, it grows clustered together. It easily binds and accepts color. Linen and wool are polar opposites and cannot be worn together.
The Torah juxtaposes the mitzvah of shatnez immediately after the mitzvah of veohavta lereiacha kamocha, loving your neighbor as yourself. Rabbi Frand extrapolates from this that although we categorize shatnez as a chok, a law beyond human understanding, we should nevertheless search for the shatnez within ourselves. Are we guilty of creating conflict with others, like the conflict between Cain and Abel? Can we work on our relationships with others?
Chochmat Hamatzpun offers what could have been the solution to that original conflict. When Cain had the idea of bringing an offering to Hashem, he should have called his brother and collaborated with him to bring a beautiful, joint offering, an offering that would be totally to honor Hashem, not for any personal aggrandizement, not from any sense of arrogance or jealousy.
In The Juggler and the King, Rabbi Feldman quoting the Gra zt”l explains why the goals of Cain and Abel were incompatible. Man, he explains, is composed of three parts, the ruach, nefesh, and neshama. [Similar to but not exactly Freud’s Id, Ego, and Superego.] Rabbi Feldman has both ruach and nefesh serving the self. Nefesh is man’s physical desires, food, shelter. Ruach, on the other hand focus man on emotional desires such as wealth and prestige. To achieve wealth and prestige, at least one must maintain some outer appearance of propriety. That effort may eventually lead to altruistic goals. But when one is interested only in the physical, there is no hope to rise above selfish interest.
Cain, being interested mainly in the physical was loath to give the best of his produce and deny himself that pleasure. There was little hope for him. Abel, on the other hand, hoping for honor and prestige, offered the best of what he had, the most outwardly presentable, even if his motive was for himself and not for Hashem. At least there was hope, and so Hashem turned to Abel to encourage him. When nefesh and ruach are in conflict, nefesh will always win. Hence, Cain killed Able.
In truth, continues Rabbi Feldman, these two urges are in constant conflict within every person. They are both iterations of self worship. The only way to make make peace is to dedicate oneself to a higher source, to the service of God. A society dedicated to wealth or power or satisfaction of physical necessities and desires will eventually self destruct. Only by placing limits on oneself through subordination to a higher Being, can one use one’s body in cooperation with one’s inner self successfully. [We are familiar with the story of the woman in line behind an Orthodox mother in the supermarket. The child kept asking for the candy at the checkout line. As soon as the mother said, “It’s not kosher,” the child stopped whining. It did not work with the gentile woman’s child.] Once you have that outer discipline, the desire may remain, but the conflict ends.
As Rabbi Berkowitz notes, Belief in Hashem means we are cognizant of the unity of Hashem, that Hashem is part of every aspect of our lives, not just what one considers spiritual. When one eats, for example, he should know that Hashem wants us to stay healthy so that we can continue to serve Him. Man must knw that Hashem is One, and that there is no dichotomy between the physical and the Godly. Cain and Abel saw division and created the conflict that ended in death. As we enter the new year, let us work on driving out the darkness and bringing the light of Hakodosh Boruch Hu into the world.