Is God a bad parent?
Dani Schreiber
Are we doing this again?
Here's a drasha that I gave this Shabbos in Raanana - pretty well received:
· Kayin was the first one to…bring a korban (I know you were thinking fratricide!).
· After Kayin and Hevel both bring korbanot, Hashem accepts Hevel’s and not Kayin’s.
בראשית פרק ד, ד-ו
וְהֶבֶל הֵבִיא גַם הוּא מִבְּכֹרוֹת צֹאנוֹ וּמֵחֶלְבֵהֶן וַיִּשַׁע יְקֹוָק אֶל הֶבֶל וְאֶל מִנְחָתוֹ: וְאֶל קַיִן וְאֶל מִנְחָתוֹ לֹא שָׁעָה וַיִּחַר לְקַיִן מְאֹד וַיִּפְּלוּ פָּנָיו:
· This sends Kayin into a depressive spiral. Hashem tries to pull him out of it, but it doesn’t work.
· But the question is: Why doesn’t Hashem accept Kayin’s korban? So what that the korban wasn’t as good? Why does it have to be a zero-sum game?
· Imagine a parent who gets pictures from his sons Reuven and Shimon. Would he tell Reuven that his picture is going in the garbage because Shimon’s is nicer? Maybe he can just pull Reuven over to the side afterwards and tell him he can do better? Why so harsh?
· Let’s start a little earlier. Why does Hashem create Man alone? Why create woman only after the fact? There are many answers to this question, and we discussed some last year. Let’s concentrate on just one:
· The Mishna in Sanhedrin asked why Man was created alone and answers that it was to teach that each life is worth a world – anyone who saves or ends a life has saved or ended a world.
· In the words of R. Shlomo Wolbe:
·
"Every individual, like Adam,
is an entire world. The existence of billions of people does not detract from
each person's uniqueness. Every individual is a one-time phenomenon.
Every person should know, "I, with my strengths and talents, facial
features and personality traits, am unique in the world. Among all those living
today and in all past generations, there was no one like me, nor will there
ever be anyone like me to the end of time. Hashem has sent me into the world
with a unique mission that no one else can fulfill, only I in my one-time existence"
(Alei Shur vol.2 p.71),
Marianne Williamson (or Nelson Mandela)
· Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
· Now, why did Hashem reject Kayin’s korban? First of all, let us be clear. Hashem did not just reject Kayin’s korban, He rejected Kayin himself. Take another look at the pasuk. It says that He accepted הבל ומנחתו and the opposite for Kayin.
· But to be clear, Hashem wasn’t comparing Kayin to Hevel – in fact, masoretically, the psukim are broken up to make that clear. That may be how Kayin perceived it, but it wasn’t the case. Hashem rejected Kayin because he did not try to live up to his potential.
· Kayin wasn’t rejected because his korban was inferior to Hevel’s. He was rejected because he brought an inferior korban. Kayin didn't live up to his individual potential.
· About Hevel it says “הבל הביא גם הוא” – Malbim says that הבל brought HIMSELF. (Panim Yafos says that it’s also captured in the drasha on אדם כי יקריב מכם...)
· Kayin had not internalized the lesson of creation – that God expects each person to bring all of himself to the table. Man was created alone to express the idea of individuality, but Kayin ignored that.
yso...@gmail.com
Sent from my iPhone
--
-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "iChabura" group.
To post to this group, send email to cha...@googlegroups.com
Any questions, email iChabur...@gmail.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
chabura+u...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/chabura?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "iChabura" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to chabura+u...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.