GEN512 … a destroying angel is created whenever a man sins, as we have been taught: “He who commits a sin acquires a prosecutor for himself” Mishnah Avot 6:13.  This angel stands before the Holy One saying: “So-and-so made me.”  As no creature can exist without the divine flow of power, how does the destroying angel who stands before God exist? It would only be right were the Holy One to say: “I will not nourish this destroying angel; let him go to the one who made him to be sustained by him.” If He were to say this, the destroyer would at once descend to snatch the sinner’s soul or to cut it off.  Or the sinner would be obliged to expiate his offense in creating the destroyer by enduring suitable punishment for his sin until the destroyer is annihilated.  The Holy One does not behave in this fashion.  He bears the sin and endures it.  He nourishes the destroyer and sustains it as He does the whole world, until one of three things happens.  Either the sinner repents and makes an end of the destroying angel by the penances he inflicts upon himself.  Or God, the righteous Judge, brings the destroyer to naught by bringing suffering or death upon the sinner, which clears his record.  Or the sinner descends to Hell to pay his debts.  This is the meaning of Cain’s plea: “My sin is too great to bear” [this verse]. Our Rabbis of blessed memory interpreted this as “You, God, bear [that is, You nourish and sustain] the whole world; is my sin so heavy that you cannot bear it [that is, sustain it until I repent]?” This is the greatest quality of tolerance, the God nourishes and sustains the evil creature brought into being by the sinner until the latter repents.  From this a man should learn the degree of patience in bearing his neighbor’s yoke and the evils done by his neighbor even when those evils still exist.  So that even when his neighbor offends him, he bears with him until the wrong is righted or until it vanishes of is own accord and so forth.  GOODSOC 17-18

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN513 It was taught: “In relation to the shedding of blood it is stated: ‘My sin is too great to forgive,’ and in relation to slander Psalms 12:4: ‘The tongue that speaks great things’ – to teach us that the sin of the slanderer comes close to being as great as that of the murderer” Erchin 15b TEMIMAH-GEN 29

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN514 This teaches us that bloodshed is one of those sins for which punishment is exacted in this world, with the “core” remaining for the next world, as it is written: [this verse] Yerushalmi, Peah 1:1. TEMIMAH-GEN 29

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN515 From the first chapter of the Torah, Judaism sets forth the paradigm for a criminal justice system that develops into nuanced laws throughout the Bible, the Talmud, and later Jewish legal literature. Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden of Eden when they choose to eat the forbidden fruit; Cain is punished when, acting upon very human emotions of anger and jealousy, he chooses to kill his brother, Abel. All individuals are accountable for their own acts. Moreover, they are accountable not just to the victim or to the victim’s family. They are also accountable to the community and, ultimately, to God. (By Laurie L. Levenson, "Judaism and CriminalJustice" OXFORD 472

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN516 This is the meaning of Cain’s plea [this verse]: ‘My sin is too great to bear,’ interpreted by our Rabbis of blessed memory [Genesis Rabbah 22:11, Yalkut, Gen. 38, where the wording is ‘Thou bearest those above and below.” C. ["C." reference unknown - AJL] interprets this as referring to the destroying angel] as: ‘Thou bearest (that is to say, Thou nourisheth and sustaineth) the whole world; is my sin so heavy that thou canst not bear it (that is, sustain it until I repent)?’  This is the greatest quality of tolerance, that He nourishes and sustains the evil creature brought into being by the sinner until the latter repents. From which a man should learn the degree of patience in bearing his neighbor’s yoke and the evils done by his neighbor even when those evils still exists. So that even when his neighbor offends he bears with him until the wrong is righted or until it vanishes of its own accord and so forth.  CORDOVERO 48-50

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN517 See [[GEN388]] Genesis 3:10 afraid COHON 125

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN518 See [[GEN293]] Genesis 2:17  “knowledge” SINAI2 201-2

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN519 By repenting, the majority of his transgression was forgiven, the main [portions] of his punishment were removed, and he escaped death.  What remained for him was the punishment of exile, as the verse says Genesis 4:16 “He settled in the land of exile to the east of Eden.”  Our sages, z”l, said Leviticus Rabbah 10:5 that even the punishment of nomadic existence was lightened after his repentance; before this, the decree of nomadic existence was double, as the verse Genesis 4:14 says, “I will become a wanderer and an exile on earth” – the nomadic existence was referred to twice. (“wanderer” and “exile.”  Yet subsequent to the repentance the verse says Genesis 4:16, “He settled in the land of exile.”  (only “exile” remained).  GATES 451-3

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN520 The Jewish way to expiation for sin is remarkably universal and democratic. God is available to everyone. As the Book of Jonah reminds us, you don’t have to be Jewish to do teshuvah.  Even the Ninevites, citizens of the capital of the hated Assyrian Empire, gave up their evil ways when Jonah called into account. Then, to Jonah’s intense annoyance, God promptly forgave them.  Jews still read this story every Yom Kippur afternoon to remind us that God listens to the sincerest supplications of gentiles as well as Jews. And this narrative also makes plain the Jewish belief that every human being, without needing a “professional” clergy or special rite, can do teshuvah by directly asking for God’s forgiveness. Our tradition teaches that people are capable and God is caring. As the rabbi said: “The only intercessors with God a person needs are repentance and good deeds” Shabbat 32a “Even if your sins are as high as heaven, even onto the seventh Heaven, and even to the throne of glory, and you repent, I will receive you” Pesikta Rabbati 185a, in Montefiore and Loewe, A Rabbinic Anthology, cf. 44.7 Scholars debate the reason that this belief achieved its prominence in rabbinic teaching.  Did we ask for forgiveness in the wake of the Temple’s destruction, blaming this massive catastrophe on our grievous sins?  Or was it developed as a conscious tenet to counter beliefs in an emerging Christian church?  An early midrash states the rabbinic view succinctly: “And Cain went out” [this verse].  On his way Cain met his father Adam [neither of them, of course, were Jews]. The latter, surprised to see his son, asked: ‘What has happened to the judgment of death that God passed upon you for killing Abel?’ Cain replied, ‘I repented, and I am pardoned.’  When Adam heard that, he smote his face and said, ‘Is the power of repentance as great as that? I did not know it was so’” Leviticus Rabbah 10:5. In contrast to Jewish teaching as it emerged at this time, classic Christian doctrine teaches that people are born as sinners, an inheritance from what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden. That being the inevitable human condition, people cannot reconcile themselves to God on their own. But out of God’s abundant love for humanity, God sends the Christ into history. His self-sacrifice thus saves people from their sinful state.  Judaism teaches that God’s love for people is so great, they only need to show God a genuine desire to turn away from their sin, and God will accept them.  Indeed, the rabbis do not hesitate to suggest that God, so to speak, also participates in our repentance: “A king’s son was sick, and the doctor said that if he would eat a certain thing, he would be healed.  But the son was too frightened to eat it. His father said to him, ‘So that you may know that it will not harm you, I will eat of it.’  God said to Israel, ‘You are ashamed to repent; behold, I will be the first to repent,’ as it is written: Thus says Adonai, Behold I will turn’ [Jeremiah 30:18] Pesikta Rabbah 44:7.  Are we exaggerating the rabbinic love of teshuvah? If so, we stand in good company: “R. Levi said: If the Israelites would but repent for one day, they would be redeemed, and the Messiah, the son of David, would come straight away, as it says, ‘Today, if you would but hear His voice’ [Psalm 95:7]” Song of Songs Rabbah 5:2 BOROJMV 273-4

SHOW FULL EXCERPT

GEN521 As society developed implements and tools for working the land and musical instruments, one person, Tuval Kayin, forged sharp instruments out of bronze and iron, which Rashi says were weapons made for murderers to kill people.  Thus, the first human weapons were made in order to hurt individuals and kill human beings, not essentially different from the guns and other weapons that are manufactured to kill people today.  Needless to say, the Rabbis did not look upon this invention as a positive development for mankind.   Nachmanides expands on this story and says that Lemech, the great-great-grandson of Cain, was very smart and inventive.  He had three sons and he taught each one a unique skill and anew trade in the world.  His oldest son perfected how to herd animals, the middle son perfected musical instruments, and the youngest son, Tuval Kayin, perfected weapon making.  When Lemech’s wives were afraid that Lemech would be punished for introducing weapons into the world, especially for his son who was named after the first murderer in the world, Kayin (Cain), Lemech, according to Nachmanides, gave the answer that is still given today by manufacturers of weapons who do not want to assume any responsibility for deaths and destruction that takes place as a result of using these weapons.  He said, “The weapons do not kill people. People kill people.” As is the case today, this argument did not hold water with most people or with God.  AMJV 120

SHOW FULL EXCERPT