Kayin and Hevel
Name: Kayin and Hevel
Father: Adam
Mother: Chava
Place of Birth: Garden of Eden
• Born to Adam and Chava.
• Brought their respective offerings to G-d.
• Hevel’s gift accepted, as G-d rebuked Kayin.
• Kayin jealously arose and killed his younger brother Hevel.
• Kayin audaciously denied knowledge of his brother’s whereabouts.
• Divine punishment meted to Kayin to wander the earth.
• Kayin accidentally killed by his descendant Lemech.
What Is Man?
The sons of Adam and Chava, original children of mankind, quarreled
in what led to murder and to the first human death.
Kayin and Hevel distinguished themselves in their respective
endeavors. Kayin, the older son, tilled the ground accursed by G-d; Hevel, the
younger son, was a shepherd. Both brought offerings to their Creator. But
while Kayin’s sacrifice of an inferior product of flax was not accepted by G-d,
Hevel’s prized sheep from his flock was.
Consumed with jealousy, Kayin arose in the field and killed his brother.
Feigning ignorance of Hevel’s whereabouts to G-d - in his infamous declaration
“Am I my brother’s keeper?” - Kayin was condemned to wander the
land whose earth was soaked with his brother’s blood.
What were the makings of Kayin and Hevel’s conflict?
The answer lies in the ability to view man from two conflicting perspectives:
as a “creator” or as a “creature.” These respective positions are personified
in the feuding brothers.
Man can see himself as an autonomous individual, exhibiting creative
prowess in his ability to create life, to master the land, and to leave an indelible
impact upon the world.
Kayin exemplified this attitude. He viewed himself as a “creator,” like his
G-d. His name, derived from the word kinyan, “acquisition” (Chava declaring
upon his birth “I have acquired [koneh] a man with G-d”), declares the human
ambition to selfishly acquire everything in the world.
That mankind’s creativity has to be nurtured and cultivated parallels
Kayin’s choice to work the land - although it was cursed by G-d. His creative
skills were honed to the task of planting and reaping the produce from the
ground. However, the downside of aggrandizing his position as “creator” was
the self-appointed authority to do whatever he saw fit. In fact, it paved the way
for Kayin to vindicate his brother’s murder.
An alternative viewpoint of man is one that negates his creative capacities.
The reasoning for this philosophy is that, no matter what he is, has, or
does, man is still an infinitesimal “creature” of G-d. It is almost as if whatever man does is in vain; that he is a passive “creature”
who is unable to take any pride in his achievements, someone of no innate
worth or of no redeeming factor. This mindset was central to Hevel’s
ideology, which, like the meaning of his name, “vanity,” meant viewing himself
as an insignificant creation, as a nonentity.
Sidestepping the demands of creativity in nurturing and toiling the
earth, like his brother Kayin, Hevel elected the life of a shepherd, to tend to
the creatures of the field - a task which demanded no creativity whatsoever.
It was at Kayin’s initiative that the brothers brought an offering to G-d.
But Kayin’s weltanschauung of a “creator” was, in fact, woefully incompatible
with the concept of a sacrifice, which requires the surrender of self before
G-d. So his offering was, unsurprisingly, rejected. Only someone with the
humbling stance of Hevel, namely a lowly “creature,” could fully identify
with the whole thrust of what an offering is all about. Thus, only his presentation
of a choice sheep was accepted by Heaven.
The ideological collision between the sons of man, fought out to determine
the nature of “what is man,” ended in fratricide. Hevel’s lowly “creature”
made him particularly vulnerable to be slain by a Kayin-like “creator.”
Neither viewpoint - taken as a model by itself - provides the template
for the continuity of human civilization. Indeed, both proponents disappeared
from the face of the earth and without any enduring legacy. Mankind
would, instead, flourish from the descendants of Adam’s third son: Sheis, related
to the word shesiyah, “foundation.”
Every individual is a world unto himself. The synthesis of Kayin and
Hevel’s respective perspectives cautions man how to constantly balance his
identity as a “creator” with that of his position as a “creature.” That is to say, he
has to be modest and self-effacing, but still not lose sight of how to develop his
incredible creative potential.
True, he is a “creator,” like his Maker and is, accordingly, expected to
emulate his Creator. Yet, this does not confer upon him any self-imposed dominion
over others; he remains, like them, an infinitesimal “creature” and creation
of G-d. This framework enables each individual to successfully realize
his humanity.
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