AND THE LORD SAID TO

CAIN, "WHERE IS ABEL YOUR BROTHER?" AND HE SAID, "I DO NOT KNOW.

AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER?" AND THE LORD SAID TO CAIN, "WHERE IS ABEL

YOUR BROTHER?" AND HE SAID, "I DO NOT KNOW. AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER?"

(Bereishit 4:9)

Where is Abel

your brother? – …since He asked him: Where is Abel your brother?

and did not ask, "Why did you kill your brother?" Cain thought He did

not know and denied [the murder] and said: "I do not know. Am I my

brother's keeper? – He goes to his work and I to my work, do I keep

watch over him everywhere he takes his flock?" Adam did not deny [his sin]

because he knew that God knows all human affairs. Even though He addressed him

in language that implies uncertainty – Where are you? – he knew that

everything is revealed before Him, may He be blessed, and that the question [Where

are you?] was only meant to begin the conversation, and he [Adam] only hid

out of embarrassment.

(ReDaK ad loc)

Am I my brother's

keeper? – …The cold egotism expressed by this answer serves us as a

warning: he who does not share his fellow's yoke is a brother to the hater and

destroyer. He will easily kill his neighbor if the later stands in his way.

(Rabbi S.R. Hirsch ad loc)

When the Holy One

Blessed be He asked him, "Where is Abel your brother?" he answered,

"I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" – You are the

Guardian of all creatures and You ask me about him?!

To what parable may

this be compared? To a thief who stole objects during the night without getting

caught.

The gatekeeper caught

him in the morning and asked him: "Why did you steal the objects?"

He answered him:

"I am a thief and I have not neglected my profession. You, however, are a

gatekeeper by profession, why did you neglect your profession? And now you

speak to me in this fashion?

Similarly, Cain said:

"I killed him; You created the evil inclination within me, You keep watch

over everything and allowed me to kill him; You, Who are the One called anokhi

am the Lord your God] are the one who killed him, for if You had accepted

my sacrifice as You had accepted his, I would not have been jealous of him.

(Midrash Tanhuma [Warsaw edition] Bereishit 9)

On

World

Yehoshua Granat

For Rabbi Ze'ev Gotthold

In Friendship, Esteem, and Gratitude

They will yet grow in old age.

In the beginning God

created the heavens and the earth. The world view contained in this most

famous of verses, and which is spun out in the course of the description of the

six days of Creation, are so well known to us and so impressed into us that we

are not always aware of its unique character. On the one side stands the One

God, the Creator, and on the other side tangible Creation, formed in its

various dimensions, mineral, vegetable, and animal, and at its heart is the

human, created in the image of God… male and female. God's absolute

singularity is very salient here, and He is clearly distinguished from the

world He created; also salient is the universal concept of the human as human,

literally "without difference of religion, race, or sex."

The Book of Proverbs (8:2-31) enriches this picture of the world

with an additional dimension, that of wisdom: God's protégée,

dwelling close to him, playing before Him at all times, personifying a

spiritual-normative existence that can mediate between Him and man. The same wisdom

which stood by God's side during the Creation (When He established the

heavens, there I was) and even earlier (The Lord acquired me at the

beginning of His way… when He had not yet made the land and the outsides)

calls to man to take her for himself (Happy is the man who hearkens to me).

True, as earlier as the Book of Ben Sira (24:7-28)

this ancient wisdom is identified with the Torah that was given to Israel:

"The book of the covenant of the High God, Torah commanded us by Moses,

inheritance of the community of Jacob." The Sages concurred with this

interpretation (Bereishit Rabbah 1:4) and

placed the Torah at the head of several lists of items which "preceded the

creation of the world," including the Throne of Glory, Israel, the

Patriarchs, the Temple, and the name of the Messiah. These "items"

mostly represent different aspects of the unique covenant between God and

Israel. By placing their origins before Creation, the midrash expresses the

exalted status of the covenant, as well as its everlasting validity. Below, we

shall turn our attention to some lesser-known traditions which include a number

of universal values, including peace, derekh eretz [literally: "the

way of the land," meaning "good manners"], compassion, and hesed

Creation.

"What is the

world's first-born?" Avinomos HaGreidi, a gentile philosophos whose

discussions with Jewish sages are cited in the aggadic literature, asked this

question of Rabban Gamliel. Rabban Gamliel answered: "Peace." He

based his response upon the conclusion of the benediction, "Who forms

light and creates darkness, makes peace and creates everything." The

phrase "makes peace" precedes "creates everything"; from

this we learn that after creating peace, God went on to create everything else.¹

There is a reason why,

when speaking with a gentile, Rabban Gamliel asserted that God created peace – a

strictly human value – before creating the rest of the world. It seems that he used

this idea to establish common ground, mutual understanding and empathy with his

interlocutor; he wished to bridge the gap associated with differences of

religious identity. However, his statement is not at all an apologetic or

forced; the Sages repeatedly remark upon how "Great is peace," a

notion which is "woven throughout our prayers and benedictions."²

The liturgical formulation, "makes peace and creates everything,"

teaches us that, "Great is peace, for it is equal to all of the work of

Creation" (Sifri Bamidbar 42),

meaning that: "Peace is equal to everything" (Sifra Behukotai 1:2), or in the words of the piytan

As He spoke, the Creator of everything,

You set peace equal to everything.³

Peace between human

beings is also described as being the purpose for the world's creation,

"For the Holy One blessed be He created it only so that there would be

peace between human beings" (Bamidbar

Rabbah 12:4). Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel went so far as to state that,

"The world stands [or "exists"] upon three things, on law, on

truth, and on peace" (Avot 1:18),

and the Jerusalem Talmud (Megillah chapter 3,

page 5) adds: "And the three of them are actually one thing: when

the law is applied truthfully, truth is established and peace is

established."

We are used to citing

the dictum, "Derekh eretz preceded the Torah." In its original

provenance (Vayikra Rabbah 9:3), the

dictum further states that humanity ordered its affairs without the help of the

Torah all through the period between the Creation and the giving of the Torah. The

basic unwritten principles of interpersonal behavior (derekh eretz) thus

preceded the Torah, which was only received many generations after the founding

of human society: "Derekh eretz preceded the Torah by twenty-six

generations." This matter can be derived from Scripture itself: and He

revolving sword, to guard the way [derekh] to the Tree of Life (Bereishit 3:24): "Derekh, that is derekh

eretz, and after it comes the Tree of Life, which is the

Torah." The targumim originating in the Land of Israel connect the phrase east

creation of the world.⁴ It is no wonder that these traditions were

eventually combined together, so that the same verse can teach us that the

Torah (the tree of life) preceded Creation, but even so the Torah was

still preceded by derekh eretz:

To guard the way

preceded everything.⁵

Derekh eretz,

that so basic and prosaic complex of obvious interpersonal conventions, was

created even earlier than the Torah. Beyond the question of

"historical" seniority, this notion also comes to greatly deepen the

importance of derekh eretz and to emphasize its rationale; it is a call

demanding that we appreciate and nurture derekh eretz.

The authors of the

aggadot frequently mention that the presence of rahamim (compassion) and

hesed (loving-kindness) was necessary from the earliest stages of

creation. The Aramaic targumim of the Land of Israel rendered the spirit of

God that hovered over the waters (Bereishit

1:2) as "the spirit of compassion from before God." The Sages

state that, "From its beginning, the world was created only with

compassion (or: with gemilut hasadim – acts of kindness), as it is said:

For I said the world will be built with hesed (Mekhiltah

Shira 9; Avot DeRabbi Natan A version, 4). But what is the relationship

between that hesed and the Torah which preceded even Creation?

Halakhot Gedolot,

a halakhic work dating from the Geonic period, offers and interesting drasha in

praise of the Torah. Hesed addresses the Torah and mentions that while

the Torah preceded both hesed and the world, it is in any event in need

of hesed and its observance will remain incomplete without hesed,

since the world was created for hesed. This point is illustrated by a

charming domestic parable:

Even

though you preceded me, you need me, since the world was created for my sake.

It

can be compared to a beautiful and praise-worthy woman who still needs to grow

her braid so as to adorn herself with it.⁶

Without hesed, the Torah cannot be a

"Torah of hesed" (Proverbs

31:26), and so, despite its innate potential beauty, without hesed

the Torah will remain unkempt: raw, wild and lacking charm.

According to the authors of the aggadot,

the world and the Torah are not alone in being dependent upon hesed;

even the divine Throne of Glory, God's own seat, needs hesed: "Even

the Throne cannot persist without hesed, for it is said: And the

Throne shall be established through hesed (Isaiah

16:5). This daring notion is also expressed in a domestic parable:

To what may this be

compared?

To a chair that had

four legs, and one of them gave way.

He took a bundle to

prop it up.

So it was with the

Throne above. As it were, it broke

Until the Holy One

blessed be He propped it up. And with what did He prop it up? With hesed.⁷

The Throne of Glory,

the most paradigmatic and magnificent symbol of God's exaltedness, kingship,

and justice, cannot stand without the help of that humble "bundle" – hesed

– which is not part of the halakhah per se nor is it part of the secrets

of the divine Merkava ("Chariot"); it exists entirely beyond

the letter of the law/

We should then not be

surprised to discover that in the piyyut "Azarta Oz Milifnim,"

one of the "Briyot Olam"⁸ piyyutim for Yom

Kippur, the anonymous author states that before creating the heavens ("You

had not yet roofed those of the little finger"⁹) God

"surrounded" His Throne with hesed:

You had not yet roofed

those of the little finger

You surrounded Your

Throne with hesed.¹⁰

Citing a similar

tradition, the French piytan Binyamin ben Shmuel addressed God with a

plea to save his people, "With hesed that preceded all."¹¹

We have seen that the

authors of piyyutim and aggadah placed the universal values of peace, derekh

eretz, and hesed alongside – and even beyond – the Torah, the Temple,

and the Throne of Glory, as entities which existed before Creation, as

"firstborn of the world". In this way they expressed the high station

which they wished to ascribe to these values. May the year that now comes to us

for the good be brimming with hesed and the Torah of hesed with derekh

eretz and peace.

[1] Avot DeRabbi Natan, B version, 24. Also see: M. Kistor, "'Na'aseh adam': hayihud

bein ahdut leribuiy"in Suggiyot BeMehkar HaTalmud, Jerusalem,

5761, pp. 30-31.

2 See: Z.

Gottheld, "Tarbut HaShalom BeTeffilot Yisrael," Mahanayim

121 (5729), pg. 89. And compare: "Great is peace, for all the blessings

and prayers conclude with peace" (Derekh Eretz Zuta 11:19).

3 Z. M.

Rabinowitz, Mahzor Piyutei Rabbi Yanai LeTorah UlaMo'adim, II, Jerusalem

and Tel Aviv 5747, pg. 163.

4 See E.

Shena'an, Mikra Ehad VeTargumim Harbei, Tel Aviv 1993, pp. 99-101.

5 Seder

Eliyahu Rabbah 1;

and compare: E.E. Urbach, Me'Olamam shel Hakhamim: Kovetz Ma'amarim,

Jerusalem 5762, pg. 420.

6 See: A. Aptowitzer, "Drasha BeShevah HaTorah,

Hakdamat Halakhot Gedolot" Sinai 4 (5700-5701), pg. 182; and

compare: N. T. Hildesheimer, Hakdamat Sefer Halakhot Gedolot, Jerusalem

5747, pg. 13.

7 Midrash

Tehillim 89:2 (and see Buber's edition pg. 191). Compare to Avot DeRabbi

Natan B version, 24: "The Throne of Glory has four legs:

righteousness, judgment, hesed, and truth, for it is said: Righteousness

countenance (Psalms 89:15); and Tanhuma Vayeira 1 (based on the same

verse): "I placed hesed before truth, righteousness, and

judgment."

8 See A. Fleischer, Shirat HaKodesh HaIvrit BeYemei

HaBeinayim, Jerusalem 5768, pg. 174.

9 The poetic formulation is based upon Isaiah 40:12: and

measure the heavens with His little finger and Psalms 104:3: Who roofs

His upper chambers with water.

[1]0 This follows the version of the piyyut in a geniza fragment

published in the Academy for the Hebrew Language's Ma'agarim. On being

surrounded with hesed, compare Psalms 32:10: Kindness will encompass

him, and the description of Creation in Kedushata LePinhas HaKohen:

You surrounded it with deeds beyond discernment[…] You surrounded them with

Your hesed and Your truth" (S. Elizur, Piyutei Rabbi Pinhas

HaKohen, Jerusalem 5764, pg. 544).

11 Compare: D. Goldschmidt (editor), Mahzor LeYamim

HaNora'Im lefi Minhagei Benei Ashkenaz lekhol Anfeihem, vol. 1: Rosh

HaShanah, Jerusalem 5730, pg. 188.

Yehoshua Granat

is completing his doctoral thesis Az Milifnei Bereishit: Mesorot VeDarkhei

Itzuvan Befiyut HaKadum al Reka Mekorotav

Man was Created

Singly

Man

was created alone in the world, so that families would not quarrel with

each other. And if now, when man was created singly, they quarrel with

each other, had he been created two at a time, how much more so!

(Tosefta, Sanhedrin 8:2)

Therefore man was

created singly… for the sake of peace among men, so that one will not

say to his fellow: My father is greater than your father.

(Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4:5)

Man was Created Last

Our Rabbis taught: Man

was created on the eve of the Sabbath; why? So that the heretics would not say:

The Holy One blessed be He had a partner in creation.

Another thing: So that

if he becomes haughty, He could tell him: The mosquito preceded you in

Creation.

(Sanhedrin 38a)

By

from it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust shall you return.

(Genesis 3:19)

Rabbi

Yehoshua ben Levi said: When the Holy One, Blessed Be He, said to Adam (Gen. 3) Thorn and sting-shrub shall it spring up for you,

tears flowed from his eyes. He said to Him: "Master of the Universe, are I

and my donkey to eat from the same trough?!" When He replied: "By

the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread," Adam was relieved.

(Pesahim 118a)

When

God gave him and the other living creatures all the grass of the fields, tears

flowed from his eyes, for it is not proper that that Man should be equivalent

with all other living creatures with regard to his livelihood. Therefore the

Holy One said to him: "By the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread,"

meaning that Man will need intelligence for this activity, and every act of

intelligence is achieved through effort and work, for it does not happen by

itself like a phenomenon of nature which happens by itself, – it requires

intelligent effort. All this is to make Man, who is intelligent, unique, for

all his food shall be produced by human endeavor, which is based on

intelligence – and this is what is suitable for him.

(MaHaRaL of Prague, Netivot Olam, Book I, pg. 129)

…all

the pain of a life of sadness is expressed in the word "bread" (lehem).

Food is also called "prey" (teref), because it is torn from

nature; it is also called "bread", because it is achieved in a social

conflict, everyone fighting everyone. (Trans. Note – The Hebrew root l'h'm' means

both bread and fighting). Were Man able to devote himself to spiritual

activity, and not only to his daily bread, Man would not fight Man, and the

concept of possessions would not carry so much weight. However, Man's life is

dependent upon the piece of bread, he obtains it only through "pain";

therefore, once he has torn food from nature, he struggles against others to

protect his possession. And there are those who fight before the tearing – lest

another attain nature's resource.

 (Rabbi S. R. Hirsch ad

loc)

Progress and the legal System do not Guarantee a

Civilized World

Although Cain and his

sons founded a city and a political collective, inventing laws and crafts for

the management of society, never-the-less, if reason will not speak, and if

there are not honest people who are by nature lovers of justice, laws will not

help; for if a tyrant rises, he will laugh at ordinances, and plunder law and justice.

(Malbim

Breishit 4:23)

After mentioning the

inventions introduced to humanity by Cain and his sons, [the Torah] presents

Lemekh's song, proving that material progress did not bring moral progress.

Violence was rife, and those generations gloried in acts of violence. The

traits hated most by God were precisely those most valued by men. In such a

situation, it became impossible for the Judge of all the earth not to do

justice. All achievements of material culture are worthless without moral

virtue.

(Prof.

M.D. Cassuto, Me'Adam ad Noah, pg. 130)

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