Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/81

 63

Cain and Abel

Lesson

III

CAIN AND ABEL (Genesis IV, 1-16)

Am

my

I

brother's keeper?

(Genesis IV,

Behold how good and how pleasant it For brethren to dwell together in unity!

Read

The

the whole of

story of Cain and Abel, too,

world?

too,

It,

is

(Psalm CXXXIII,

1.)

Psalm CXXXIII.

answering the almost begin to Avorship

9.)

universal

God? and

How

probably had

its

in origin a folk-tale,

is

How

questions,

into

nomad

birth in the

men

did

come

did death

the

period

This is to be inferred from the concepwhich the story pictures. Not Cain's sacri-

of Israel's history. tion of sacrifice

of the produce of his fields

fice

is

acceptable to God, but

Not only was

Abel's sacrifice of the firstlings of his sheep.

always the normal

this

sacrifice in ancient Israel, but

it

also

products had its origin in the old, desert life, when were almost entirely unknown, and the only true sacrifice field

consisted field fice.

of the best of the sheep.

From

standpoint

this

products constituted an insufficient and unworthy sacri-

For

nomad

this

reason the story, written entirely

point of view,

condemns the

of

sacrifice

from the Cain and

approves that of Abel.

But although a this

story,

folk-tale

as through

dominant, religious

in

origin,

there

runs

through

the folk-tales already considered, the

spirit

of Judaism.

In

its

present form

the story deals primarily with the problem of brotherhood. Its

thought

is

summed up

in

Cain's

question.

"Am

I

my