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Cain's Children
Bex Stern-Rosenblatt
Parashah
After Cain kills his brother, Abel, and God banishes him, making him a wanderer on the face of the earth, Cain has a child. He “knows his wife and she becomes pregnant and she gives birth to Enoch.” From this child will issue six generations more of children, a line of fathers and their sons, until we reach Lamech and his four children. Cain who did not understand his fundamental responsibility as a human and as a family member somehow gets how to be a father.
It is Cain who asks God, “HaShomer achi anochi?” often translated as “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The word shomer is powerful. Adam was supposed to shomer the Garden of Eden, but he failed. Instead, we are banished and cherubim with fiery swords shomer the path back in, blocking us from entering. It is the word used most often in connection with brit, with covenant. We are to shomer the brit with God. We are keepers of God’s covenant. We do this by shomer-ing the commandments, like lishmor shabbat. Likewise, God will shomer us. God will keep us, protect us, maintain us. The sentiment is found most powerfully in Psalm 121, which we quote daily in Shomer Yisrael. We read “Israel’s guard: The LORD is your guard, the LORD is your shade at your right hand...The LORD guards you from all harm, He guards your life. The LORD guards your going and your coming, now and forevermore.”
Of course, God did not guard Abel. Cain was not the shomer of his brother and God did not keep Abel safe, did not protect him until it was too late. But God does choose to protect Cain, who fears that whoever meets him may kill him. God puts a mark on Cain to keep him safe.
Cain seems to learn from this. Cain, who was not his brother’s keeper, becomes the fierce guardian of his son and his descendants. Cain, who was condemned to be a wanderer on the face of the earth, has a son and builds a city which he will name after his son. Cain takes the steps necessary to ensure that his son is safe. He, who has lost his home, builds his son a new one. He goes so far as to name this home after his son, doing everything he can to make sure that his son will always be secure. It is similar to God placing the people, Israel, in the Land of Israel. Cain learns how to be a shomer.
For the next many generations, the transmission from father to son is unbroken. We assume everyone lived in peace and prosperity - there are no stories worth reporting. The next story we hear is that of Lamech, who has four children, three boys and a girl. Each boy becomes the father of a way of living - one of tent dwelling and livestock raising, one of music making, and one of metalworking. Lamech seems to have internalized Cain’s message, but he has heard it wrong. He learns to be a shomer, but not of his children. He gives no thought to how to keep his family safe and how to preserve the crafts they have created. Rather, he says to his wives, “Adah and Zillah, O hearken my voice, You wives of Lamech, give ear to my speech. For a man have I slain for my wound, a boy for my bruising. For sevenfold Cain is avenged, and Lamech seventy and seven.” Lamech knows how to take revenge. Lamech knows how to declare his vengeance to the world. But we hear no more of the line of this Lamech. We hear no more of his children. For all his talk, Lamech does not seem to act as a shomer of his children.
Mistakes happen and they have consequences. Cain’s brother dies. Cain learns from his mistakes and he becomes a shomer to his child, who lives in peace in a city of his own. Let’s try to be Cains and not Lamechs.
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