Bereshit2008Bouskila

Silence Of The Brothers
Bereshit, Genesis 1:1-6:8
Haftorah: Isaiah 42:5-43:10

Rabbi Daniel Bouskila
Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel

One of the most mysterious omissions in the Bible comes at the very beginning, as a prelude to the world's first case of murder.

Cain and Abel, the world's first brothers, are out in the field together, and the Torah tells us that "Cain said to his brother Abel... and when they were in the field, Cain set upon his brother Abel and killed him." We know that Cain killed Abel, and we know that some sort of conversation or exchange of words between them preceded the murder. What we do not know is what they talked about. The Torah is remarkably silent about what was presumably a powerful exchange of words. It was these mysterious words that led to the very first act of murder. It seems the Torah intentionally left the content and details of this conversation out of the text, so that we could sit and speculate on what type of words might lead to murder.

Indeed, the Midrash offers three different speculations. One opinion posits that they argued about land and material possessions. A second opinion is that they argued about whose land God's Temple should be built on. A third opinion hypothesizes that Cain and Abel actually had a sister, and that she was the subject of their dispute. So let's think about this: what were the causes of the world's first dispute, which led to the world's first murder? Land, religion and jealousy over a woman.

The Midrash demonstrates the power of the Torah's silence. Had it given us the details, we might never have been able to apply the lessons of this first murder to our own lives as powerfully as the Midrash did for us. Because of the Torah's silence on this matter, the Midrash was able to explore the issue of murder and remind us that whether it's Cain and Abel, or any other set of people or nations, the issues that potentially lead to murder apply in every generation, in every language and religion, and around the entire globe. This is one of the unique cases when the Torah's silence speaks more powerfully than its words.