Cain is much maligned. We tell the story of how he kills his own brother in a fit of jealous rage at God. How God curses him to till the earth in vain and wander the land as an exile. How God marks him forever with a sign so that all will recognize him as the sinner he is and go on living as a cautionary tale to others: This is what you turn into when you do evil. Whatever the mark of Cain looked like (some say it was a dog, others a horn protruding from his forehead, others writing on his forehead), it has come to symbolize the evil human beings are capable of.
But what about that mark? God gives it to Cain for protection. Anyone who lays a hand on Cain will suffer seven-fold violence. Why is it that God wants Cain alive? What is Cain’s life a sign and reminder of to human beings?
One answer is suggested by comparing Cain’s encounter with God after his sin of murder with his father Adam’s encounter with God after his sin of failing to trust God in the Garden of Eden and eating a forbidden fruit. When God confronts Adam, who is hiding, Adam lies, and he blames God. “I didn’t do it,” he says. “The woman You gave me did it.” God’s response: God exiles Adam and Hava from the Garden of Eden and punishes them with hard labor and birth pangs. When God confronts Cain, that vile son guilty of fratricide, he, too lies. “I don’t know where my brother is,” he says. “Why should I? I’m not responsible for him.” The implication here is that God is his brother’s keeper, so Cain, too blames God. God’s response: He punishes Cain with fruitless labor and exiles him everywhere on earth. So far, not much difference. What happens next changes everything—for Cain, for God, and for all who follow.
Cain dares to respond to God, to stay in the relationship with God. “My punishment is too great for me to bear! Since you have banished me this day from the soil, and I must avoid your presence and become a restless wanderer on earth—anyone who meets me may kill me!” (Gen. 4: 13-14) Cain is the first in a long illustrious line of those who argue with God for mercy, who dare to negotiate terms of punishment. And he is the first to mourn the fact that he has alienated himself from the Presence and must suffer the pain of that alienation every day of his life. Remarkably, God responds to him not with more curses for his cheekiness and whining, but with a mark of protection and a promise of mercy: “If anyone kills Cain, sevenfold vengeance will be taken on that person!” The next thing the Genesis account tells us is that Cain went out from the Presence of the Lord and settled in Nod, built a city, and raised his family.
A midrash in Genesis Rabbah (22:12) fills in the gap between leaving the Presence and settling into his life as the man who murdered his brother this way:
“Cain went out from the Presence of the Lord” (Gen. 4:16). Cain [did not speak deceitfully, but] went forth as one glad in heart. Adam met him and asked, “What was done in punishment of you?” Cain replied, “I vowed repentance and was granted clemency.” Upon hearing this, Adam, in self-reproach, began to stroke himself in the face as he said, “Such is the power of repentance, and I knew it not.” Then and there Adam exclaimed, “It is a good thing to confess to the Lord.” (Ps. 92:2)
Did Cain “vow repentance”? Perhaps all that was necessary was for him to stay close to the presence of the Lord, to trust God enough to keep talking to him. Even as he bore the pain and shame of his incomparably evil deed and God’s anger, Cain trusted--in his own puny way-- in the power of God’s compassion, and thus in the possibility of return, teshuvah. That is all it takes to awaken new life and set teshuvah in motion.
Adam or Cain? Whose way of responding to sin is a better guide along our way?
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