In short, the first fight in human history was also the first religious war. A third theory: Each wanted to have the Temple of Jerusalem built in his domain. According to this explanation, the two brothers were both in love with their mother in another version, with their sister. Another midrashic suggestion: Cherchez la femme-so let us look for the woman. In the midrash, they inherited their dispute from their parents: Cain took the land for himself, and Abel received everything else. In the midrashic literature, the antagonism between the two brothers is not limited to the story about their offerings to the Lord. But to throw himself on his more fortunate brother and kill him! Too much!

Abel succeeded in winning God’s favor? Cain, the older brother, should have been pleased for Abel! Was Cain unable to control his anger? Well, that is understandable. If Cain wished to reproach someone, he should have addressed God, and not his younger brother. One does not kill an innocent person, and certainly not one’s brother. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to understand his resentment, even his rage. And the first death in history, it is worth underlining, was a murder. And Cain killed Abel.įor the first time in history, death occurs. Until then brothers united, surely devoted one to the other, the two would never be close again. There we learn that God would have preferred Abel’s gifts-they were of choicer quality. For reasons the text does not bother to explain, however, God accepts the gift from Abel after refusing the gift from Cain.Īn unjust Creator of the World? Already? How can we understand this favoritism? What did Abel do so great, beautiful or praiseworthy as to merit the divine sympathy denied to his brother? Cain, innocent victim of unprecedented heavenly discrimination-how can we not wonder about his fate?Īs always, the midrash a comes to the rescue in our attempt to fill the gaps left by the biblical text. But for this, Abel might never have felt the need to do the same. He shares with his younger brother, Abel, the generous idea of offering gifts to the Lord. It haunted mankind then and still does, working its way into our nightmares.Īt first we become attached to Cain. Why do they hold such an important place in our collective memory, which the Bible represents for so many of us? Mean, ugly, immoral, oppressive-their story disturbs and frightens. Photo: © Estate of Georg Grosz/Licensed by Vaga, New York, NY.Ĭain and Abel: The first two brothers of the first family in history. Grosz’s paintings present a biting satire of German society, criticizing militarism, blind obedience to political leaders, and moral corruption.

The final lesson, according to Wiesel: Killing a man is killing a brother.īorn in Berlin, Georg Grosz (1893–1959) emigrated to the United States in 1933, just a few days before Adolf Hitler took office as German chancellor. As Elie Wiesel points out in the accompanying essay, the first death in biblical history is a difficult one, raising questions not only about Cain’s responsibility for the death of his brother, but about Abel’s own culpability and God’s role in the killing. Chaotic skeletons struggle at Cain’s feet in Grosz’s painting, titled Cain, or Hitler in Hell. Mankind’s first murderer, a weary Cain contemplates the death of his brother, Abel, who lies face down (at right) in this 1944 painting by the German-born artist Georg Grosz.

Author wiesel