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The Roots of Confrontation October 23, 2020
I hope this correspondence finds you doing well and enjoying the nice fall weather, as best you can. Please keep reading our announcements for some exciting upcoming programming initiatives. Even though we are not yet in person, we do have some nice events coming up for you to enjoy, albeit virtually! I wanted to pick up on a thought that Rabbi Stern shared last Shabbat during our service. Rabbi shared with us the beauty of Midrash Aggada, a specific type of Rabbinic literature that offers the opportunity for our Sages to share life lessons, stories and ethical literature. One classic example of Midrash Aggada from last Shabbat’s Torah reading includes the story of Cain and Abel. Abel’s offering to God is preferred to that of Cain and it results in the first recorded fratricide. We read in the text (Gen 4:8), “And Cain spoke to Abel his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field…” and then in the next sentence it tells us that Cain kills Abel. The text of Bereishit Rabbah 22:7 notes the question, "How did we go from a conversation in the field to the first assault in the Tanach?" The text offers three answers to teach us about violent confrontation. The first opinion says, “What were they arguing about? They said: come let’s divide up the world, one will take the land and one will take the moveable property. This one said: the ground you are standing on is mine. The other one said: what you are wearing is mine. This one said: take it off! The other one said: fly! Because of this… Cain rose against his brother Abel and killed him.” Essentially, the text is offering that intense confrontation has to do with money/financial resources. In the second opinion, R’ Yehoshua of Sakhnin said in the name of R’ Levi: "They both took the land and the moveable property. So, what were they arguing about? One said: The Holy Temple will be built in my boundary. The other said: The Holy Temple will be built in my boundary. As it says “…when they were in the field…” (ibid.) and the field only refers to the Holy Temple. Because of this… Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him.” Here the Midrashic text is offering that intense confrontation has to do with religion and religious authority. (You can read more about this in the book Not in God’s Name by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sachs.) Finally, Yehudah bar Ami said: "They were arguing about the first Eve. R’ Ibo said: the first Eve returned to the dust. Then what were they arguing about? R’ Huna said: an extra twin sister was born with Abel. This one said: I will take her because I am the first born. The other one said: I will take her because she was born with me. Because of this… Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him.” Here the Midrashic text is offering that intense confrontation has to do with sexual relationships or passion. In summary, I think there are two points to keep in mind here. First, the Rabbis, through Midrash, are trying to teach us about the primary sources of conflict in the world, which include money, religion and passion. Some argue that this can really be narrowed down to one primary cause at the root of intense argumentation, power. As a congregant of mine in Chicago used to say, “power is never given, power is always taken.” Second, the text doesn’t include which brother offered each side of the argument. I think, here, the Rabbis are trying to teach that sometimes when we are overly involved in forceful argument, it almost doesn’t matter who said what and who voiced which opinion. We can get so far down the rabbit hole that we forget who said what; we only want to be correct. As we prepare to enter Shabbat and even the election season, let us remind ourselves that while it is okay to voice different opinions, we should never let disparity of opinion lead us towards intolerable reactions. Rather, we can strive as individuals to pursue God’s gifts of compromise and God’s greatest gift, that of Shalom.
Rabbi Eric L. Wasser, EdD
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