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The Origins of Human Violence and the Crisis of the Biblical First Family

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The Origins of Human Violence and the Crisis of the Biblical First Family The Origins of Human Violence and The Crisis of the Biblical First Family Cain and Abel in Torah, Commentary, Midrash, Art, Poetry, Movies and Thought By Noam Zion and Steve Israel Shalom Hartman Institute, TICHON, 5765 / 2004 1 The Origins of Human Violence and The Crisis of the Biblical First Family TABLE OF CONTENTS ORIENTATION TO THE CURRICULUM INTRODUCING GENESIS 4: THREE THEMES AND TWO METHODS AND ONE ART ACTIVITY 1: The Question of Violence 2: The Question of Sibling Rivalry 3: The Question of Self-Control and Human Nature 4. Pshat and Midrash 5. An Artistic Introductory Activity – Abel Pann ASKING KUSHIYOT AND COMPARATIVE TRANSLATION AS COMMENTARY I. SECTION ONE: PARENTAL EXPECTATIONS – ADAM, EVE AND CAIN (Genesis 4: 1-2) On the Birth and Parental Background of Cain: Adam's Standpoint and Eve's standpoint. EXERCISE: BRAINSTORMING KUSHIOT EXERCISE: MARSHALLING OUR EXPERIENCE ON BIRTH ORDER: FIRST BORN – PLAGUE OR PRIVILEGE? ACTIVITY: STRETCHING THE TRADITIONAL VIEW OF THE FIRST FAMILY WITH MIDRASH ACTIVITY: HAPPY FAMILIES? WITH NORMAN ROCKWELL ACTIVITY: A Case Study of the Dysfunctional First Family by Edwin Friedman Or Cain Sees His Shrink by Jonathan Freund ACTIVITY: CLASS PHOTO by Gershom Gorenberg II. SECTION TWO: SIBLING RIVALRIES - CAIN AND ABEL (Genesis 4:2-5) The Brothers: Sibling Rivalry. Professional choices: the farmer and the shepherd EXERCISE: PROFESSIONAL SONS Accepting and Rejecting the Sacrifices: Explaining God's Behaviour EXERCISE: ACCEPTANCE, REJECTION ACTIVITY: CAIN ON THE COUCH WITH ERICH FROMM AND PETER PITZELE 2 ACTIVITY: THE BIBLE IN CONTEMPORARY SONG - THE KING BRUCE VERSION! SUMMING UP ACTIVITIES FOR PART TWO: TALKING WITH THE BROTHERS ACTIVITY: SIBLINGS WITH BRUNO BETTELHEIM III. SECTION THREE: THE CONTROL OF SELF AND HUMAN NATURE (Genesis 4: 6- 7) Cain: the Price of Rejection Cain’s State of Mind EXERCISE: UNDERSTANDING ANGER Interpreting God's Mysterious Message to Cain with a Dictionary Cain’s Yetzer hara as the Key to Human Nature ACTIVITY: THE COMMENTATORS SPEAK: PARSHANUT AND DARSHANUT. Developing a Message: Taking a Tip from the Chassidim On the Issue of Biblical Translation ACTIVITY: CREATING AND TRANSLATING. SUPPLEMENTARY EXERCISE: COMPARING VERSIONS. Reflecting on God's Problematic Approach ACTIVITY: CAIN IN PAIN ACTIVITY: INSIDE THE MIND OF CAIN ACTIVITY: CONTRASTING CAIN AND HILLEL – Keeping your cool! IV. SECTION FOUR: THE MISSING DIALOGUE BEFORE THE MURDER: “CAIN SAID TO ABEL…” (Genesis 4: 8) MIDASHIC DIALOGUES MODERN THINKERS PRE-FIGURED IN THE MIDRASH BIBLIODRAMA – A TECHNIQUE FOR DRAMATIC MIDRASH ACTIVITY: VIOLENCE IN OUR OWN WORLD: THE WHAT'S, THE WHY'S AND THE WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT! CAIN THE INNOCENT VICTIM: Modern Readings THE EXERCISE: WHO’S TO BLAME 3 V. SECTION FIVE: TALKING ABOUT GUILT - CAIN, ABEL AND GOD. (Genesis 4: 9-10). ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY? CAIN – “who? me?” EXERCISE: CAIN’S SURPRISING RESPONSES – PLEADING INNOCENT EXERCISE: CAIN’S DEFENCE ATTORNEY SUGGESTED SUPPLEMENTARY ACTIVITY: 'TAXI DRIVER' INDIRECT RESPONSIBILITY: ABEL, THE VICTIM? ACTIVITY: BLAMING ABEL 1 AND 2 INDIRECT RESPONSIBILITY: GOD EXERCISE: BLAMING GOD WITH MY GOD, THE BLACKSMITH VI. SECTION SIX: THE POLICY OF PUNISHMENT – CRIME AND PUNISHMENT and CAIN AND GOD. (Genesis 4: 11-17) INTRODUCTORY EXERCISE: PUNISHMENT! EXERCISE: PICTURING THE CRIME with Midrash and Art SUPPLEMENTARY ACTIVITY: PUNISHING MURDER. 1. WHAT WAS CAIN'S PUNISHMENT? THE PRINCIPLE OF 'MEASURE FOR MEASURE' (Gen. 4:11-12). EXERCISE: CAIN'S PUNISHMENT 2. WHAT WAS CAIN'S RESPONSE TO THE PUNISHMENT? GOD SPEAKS AND CAIN HEARS – OR DOES HE (Gen. 4: 13-14)? ACTIVITY: LIFE WITHOUT GOD 3. WHAT WAS CAIN'S RESPONSE TO THE PUNISHMENT? THE REPENTANCE ISSUE. EXERCISE: DOES CAIN REPENT? 4. GOD'S REACTION TO CAIN'S RESPONSE. THE MARK OF CAIN. (Gen. 4:15) ACTIVITY: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT - THE QUESTION OF CAIN 5. THE END OF CAIN (Gen. 4: 16-17) ACTIVITY: REWRITING CAIN'S ENDING 4 VII. SECTION SEVEN: THE STORY IN LITERATURE A. Three poems by Dan Pagis. B. Four Jewish poets and writers. Amir Gilboa, Else Lasker Schueler, H. Leivick, Yigal Tumarkin C. Three non-Jewish poets: two Americans - Betty Sellers and Scott Summers – and a great Frenchman - Charles Baudelaire ACTIVITY: TALKING LITERARY VIII. SECTION EIGHT: SUMMING UP THE STORY ACTIVITY: CAIN ON TRIAL ACTIVITY: CREATING A MODERN STORY ACTIVITY: CAIN AND ABEL IN PARADISE WITH GHIBERTI IN FLORENCE IX. SECTION NINE: THE MOVIE VERSION – EAST OF EDEN STARRING JAMES DEAN BASED ON THE NOVEL BY JOHN STEINBECK Advice to the Educator for Analyzing a Movie as a Midrash BACKGROUND of the MOVIE THE INTRODUCTION BEFORE THE FILM: ACT ONE: Introducing all the main characters and issues: ACT TWO: New aspects of the characters revealed as they are tested by events. ACT THREE: The outcomes - happy endings? SUMMING UP Study Texts for Cain and Abel 5 ORIENTATION Any Biblical story can be taught in an infinite variety of ways. On one pole is the textual focus in which any text can generate an infinite number of themes that makes it difficult to converge on a particular value. On the other pole the thematic focus uses the text for a predetermined point that sometimes forces the text. In this unit we try to get the best of both approaches. The text comes first in very small bite-size pieces followed by the brainstorming of questions. Then we focus on a few kushiyot (questions) and we reflect on a literary reading of the text in the light of these questions. Finally we build a conversation of commentators – both ancient and modern, both interpretations of pshat (contextual, historical interpretation) and of midrash (imaginative recontruction). We do not here seek to evaluate the commentators as to how well they understood the historic text but only how they related to the theme and the questions. We seek to offer several conceptual models to each theme. Ideally the students will also be invited to join the process of intergenerational unpacking and extrapolating upon and interrogating the Torah in light of our burning issues of violence and human conflict. Each unit is built around: a. a very brief unit of text, like Genesis 4: 1-2, b. a focal theme, like birth order and parental expectation c. specific kushiyot we have posed from a close reading of the text like why Abel’s name is not explained d. a conversation of commentators, like Rabbi Elazar, Erich Fromm, Rashi, and Nahum Sarna e. activities, like analyzing the artistic interpretation of Abel Pann or putting Cain or God on trial Our major themes include: SECTION ONE: PARENTAL EXPECTATIONS – ADAM, EVE AND CAIN (Genesis 4: 1-2) SECTION TWO: SIBLING RIVALRIES: CAIN AND ABEL (Genesis 4:2-5) SECTION THREE: THE CONTROL OF SELF AND HUMAN NATURE (Genesis 4: 6-7) SECTION FOUR: THE MISSING DIALOGUE BEFORE THE MURDER: “CAIN SAID TO ABEL…” (Genesis 4: 8) SECTION FIVE: TALKING ABOUT GUILT - CAIN, ABEL AND GOD. (Genesis 4: 9-10). SECTION SIX: THE POLICY OF PUNISHMENT: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. CAIN AND GOD. (Genesis 4: 11-17) SECTION SEVEN: THE STORY IN LITERATURE SECTION EIGHT: SUMMING UP THE STORY SECTION NINE: THE MOVIE VERSION – EAST OF EDEN STARRING JAMES DEAN BASED ON THE NOVEL BY JOHN STEINBECK 6 INTRODUCING GENESIS 4: THREE THEMES AND TWO METHODS AND ONE ART ACTIVITY As educators we may let issues arise inductively and discursively from the text of the Torah or we can frame the big questions in order to define the universe of discourse of our study and then read closely for clues to that major question. The existentialist philosopher of Judaism, Abraham Joshua Heschel, insisted that the proper study of traditional text begins with these big philosophical questions for Jewish texts are attempts to answer them, not merely historical facts or maxims to be handed down from generation to generation – lest we forget. Heschel’s great fear was that we would forget the questions. Below are three thematic framings by which an educator may introduce the student to the importance of the story of Cain and Abel so as to focus one’s attention and to arouse the associations from life and literature and the rest of the Torah that we wish our students to bring to the brief text we are exploring. As Judah Goldin, professor of Midrash, wrote: “Text and experience are mutually enlightening.” Thus the framing helps the students marshal experience to illumine the text and to identify existentially meaningful phenomena on which the text may shed its light for the student. While many Biblical subjects transcend the student’s world, here the story of Cain and Abel concerns an area of family conflict and sibling rivalry in which the students’ associations and feelings have much to contribute to illuminate the text and its commentators. Theme 1: The Question of Violence. The story of Cain and Abel is about violence – the first murder – so it serves as an eternal archetype. The early part of Genesis 1-11 is a series of etiological stories, stories constructed in mythical terms to provide answers to the essential questions of human life, of which there were many. How was the world created? How were people created? Where does sex come from? Why is childbirth so painful? How was language created? How were nations created? All these questions are "must" questions, the questions that must occur to human beings groping towards full consciousness of their existence. In that sense the often-asked question whether these stories are "true", misses the point. They are true in a very deep sense which may have nothing to do with the historical. They are true in the sense that they are stories which represent the deepest attempts of people to find fundamental answers to the most important questions that they have. They represent, to the people who first related them, the ultimate truths of their time.
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