This is the fourth of a series of translations from the Bialik-Ravnitzky Sefer Ha-Aggada. Previous selections (“Men and Women,” “The Creation,” and “Adam and Eve and the Serpent”) appeared in the issues of July 1949 and January and March 1950.

The Aggada is made up of stories, dialogues, homilies, sayings, proverbs, fables, and riddles scattered through the Mishna and the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds, as well as other sources. The Bialik-Ravnitzky edition of the Aggada, which appeared in six volumes from 1908 onwards, and from which this translation was made, was the fruit of research by the famous Hebrew poet and his scholarly patron into the numerous traditional collections of Aggadic savings. It was created with the needs of the modern Hebrew-reading and Hebrew-speaking generation in mind and intended as a popular, literary folk-collection rather than an archeological or scholarly monument. It has become one of the most popular modern Hebrew books. The translation into English is by Hilda Auerbach.—Ed.

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And Cain Talked With Abel his Brother (Gen. 4:8).

Cain said to Abel: Come now, let us divide up the world. Said Abel: Good. Said Cain: You take all the movables and I will take all the lands. Thus they made an agreement between them according to which neither of them could have any complaints against the other.

Abel began to herd sheep. Said Cain to him: The land on which you stand belongs to me. Said Abel to him: The wool that you are wearing belongs to me. The one said: Go fly! The other said: Take it off! As a result: “Cain rose up against Abel his brother” (Gen. 4:8).

Cain began to run after him from hill to valley and from valley to hill until they closed with each other and Abel overcame him and Cain was lying beneath him. When Cain saw this he began to scream: Abel my brother! Both of us are in the world—and what are you going to tell father? . . . Whereupon Abel was filled with compassion for him and let him be. Thereupon Cain immediately rose up against him and slew him. Hence it is said: “Cain rose up against Abel his brother.” This teaches that one was held down below the other. And how did he kill him? He took a stone and made wound after wound, cut after cut, on his arms and on his legs, for he did not know from what place the soul would depart, until he came to his throat and then Abel died.

Once he had killed him he said [to himself]: I shall flee from my father and my mother, for they cannot seek him except through me, there is no one else in the world but myself and him. Whereupon the Holy One, blessed be He, was revealed to him.

Said He to him: You may flee from your parents, but from my face you cannot flee. “Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him?” (Jer. 23:24). “Where is Abel thy brother?” (Gen. 4:9). Said Cain to Him: I do not know; why should you ask me for him?—I wish to ask you where he is. Said the Holy One, blessed be He, to him: Wicked one, “the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground” (Gen. 4:10).

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Am I My Brother’s Keeper? (Gen. 4:9).

Cain said: You are the keeper of all creation and yet you ask for him at my hands? To what may this be likened? To a thief who stole jewels at night and was not caught. In the morning the watchman caught him. Said he to him: Why did you steal the jewels? Said he: I am a thief and I have not forsaken my occupation, but your occupation is to keep watch at the gate, why did you forsake it?

And thus Cain said: I killed him—you created the evil urge in me, you keep watch over everything, and yet you allowed me to kill him? You are the one who killed him! For if you had received my sacrifice as you did his, I would not have envied him.

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And cain said unto the lord, my punishment is greater than i can bear (gen. 4:13).

Cain said: Lord of the universe! Are there slanderers who speak evil of man before you? Behold, my father and my mother are both on earth and they do not know that I killed him, and you are in heaven, whence do you know? Said the Holy One, blessed be He: Fool! I bear the whole of the world. Said Cain: You bear the whole of the world, and you cannot bear my punishment? “My punishment is greater than I can bear!” Said the Holy One, blessed be He, to him: As you have repented, go now and be exiled from this place—immediately. “And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod” (Gen. 4:16).

As Cain went, in every place that he passed the earth trembled beneath him. And the wild beasts and animals would tremble and say: Who is this? Saying to one another: Cain killed Abel his brother and the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded him: “A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be” (Gen. 4:12)—let us approach and eat him. And they would gather together and draw near him to claim Abel’s blood.

In that hour the tears flowed from Cain’s eyes and he said:

Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;

Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me (Ps. 139:7-10).

Said the Holy One, blessed be He: “Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold” (Gen. 4:15).

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And the lord set a mark upon cain (gen. 4:15).

Rav said: He gave him a dog. Abba Yosi says: He grew a horn on his head.

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And cain went from the presence of the lord (gen. 4:16).

He went out happily. The first man met him. Said he to Cain: What has been done concerning your sentence? Said Cain to him: I have repented and was pardoned. The first man began to beat his own face and say: Such is the power of repentance and I did not know it! Immediately the first man stood up and said :“A psalm, a song. For the Sabbath day. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord” (Ps. 82:1-2).

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Said Rabbi Jeremiah ben Elazar: All those years when the first man was in a state of excommunication he begot spirits and devils and demons, as it is said: “And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness after his image” (Gen. 5:3)—which is to say that until then he begot them unlike his own image.

They asked Abba Cohen bar Dala concerning the generations “Adam, Seth, Enosh,” and the interruption which follows (Gen. 4:26). Said he: Up until then they were begotten in the image and the likeness, from then on the generations decayed and centaurs were born.

Four things changed in the days of Enosh, son of Seth: The mountains became craggy, dead bodies began to bring forth worms, the faces of men became like those of monkeys [less like that of the Lord], and men became more easily subject to injury.

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And the Lord said, i will destroy man (gen. 6:7).

This may be compared to a king who built a palace and filled it with mute tenants, and they would rise early and would greet the king with gestures and by crooking their finger and waving their kerchiefs. Said the king: What of these mute creatures, rising early and greeting me with gestures and with crooking of the finger and waving of kerchiefs—if they could speak they would be able to do so much more! Whereupon the king filled it with tenants capable of speech who rose up and seized the palace, saying: This palace does not belong to the king, it belongs to us! Said the king: Let the palace return to what it was. Thus, at the beginning of the creation of the world, God’s praise only rose up from the waters, as it is said: “. . . than the noise of many waters” (Ps. 93:4). What did they say? “The Lord on high is mightier!” (ibid.). Said the Holy One, blessed be He: What of these [the waters] who have neither speech nor language, and yet they praise me; if I create man, how much the more so! Whereupon the generation of Enoch rose up and rebelled against Him, the generation of the flood rose up and rebelled against Him. Said the Holy One, blessed be He: Let those be cleared away and let those [the waters] come.

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And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the pace of the ground, both man and cattle (gen. 7:23).

If man sinned, how did the cattle sin? Learn by way of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Karcha: This resembles the man who arranged a wedding canopy for his son and ordered all kinds of feasting foods. After several days his son died—whereupon he took the canopy apart. Said he: Did I make these preparations for anyone save my son, and now that he is dead, why should I keep the canopy? So the Holy One, blessed be He, said: Did I create the wild beasts and the cattle for anyone save man, and now that man has sinned, what use are the wild beasts and the cattle to me?

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When the generation of the flood rose up and served false gods the Holy One, blessed be He, grew sad, whereupon the two angels, Shemchazai and Azael, rose up and said to Him: Lord of the universe, did we not say when you created the world: “What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?” (Ps. 8:4). Said He to them: And what will become of the world? Said they to Him. Lord of the universe, we should be contented with it. Said He to them: It is clear and apparent to me that if you should dwell on earth the evil urge would come upon you and you would be worse than man. Said they to Him: Give us permission that we may live among earthly creatures and you shall see how we sanctify your Name. Said He to them: Descend and dwell with them. Whereupon the angels disgraced themselves with the daughters of men, for they were beautiful and the angels were not able to conquer their urge.

Shemchazai saw a maiden called Istahar and let his eyes rest upon her. Said he: Listen to me. Said she: I shall not listen to you unless you give me your wings and teach me the Tetragrammaton, by means of which you rise into the sky when you remember it.

Thereupon he gave her his wings and taught her the Tetragrammaton. She remembered it and rose into the sky—and he did not seduce her. Said the Holy One, blessed be He: As she has removed herself from sin, let her be placed among these seven stars—and she was placed in the midst of the Pleiades. When Shemchazai and Azael saw this they decided to take women in marriage, and Shemchazai begot sons: Hiva and Haya.

Shemchazai turned in repentance and hung himself between earth and heaven, his head below and his legs above, and he is still hanging there in repentance. Azael did not turn in repentance and remains in disgrace to this day.

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For all flesh had corrupted his way (gen. 6:12).

Said Rabbi Azariah for Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon: Everyone corrupted his way in the generation of the flood—the dog would go to the wolf and the rooster would go to the peacock. Rabbi Luliani bar Tivrin said for Rabbi Yitzhak: Even the earth was wanton—they would sow her with wheat and she would bring forth tares. These are the tares of the generation of the flood.

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And lamech took unto him two wives (gen. 4:19).

Said Rabbi Azariah for Rabbi Yehuda bar Simon: This is what the men of the generation of the flood would do: each one would take unto himself two wives, one for procreation and one for sexual intercourse. The one who was for procreation would sit there as if a widow in her husband’s life; and the one who was for sexual intercourse was given drinks to make her sterile so that she would not give birth, and would sit with him decorated like a whore.

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