קין

Cain is the first murderer in history, and in the same breath also the first penitent. The firstborn son of Adam and Eve, he brought an offering to God from the fruit of the ground, and when it was not accepted like his brother's offering, his face fell, and God warned him: 'if you do well, there is uplift, and if you do not do well, sin crouches at the door' (Genesis 4:7). He had a moment to choose, and he chose evil.

He killed his brother Abel in the field, and when asked 'where is Abel your brother,' he answered the sentence that has haunted humanity ever since: 'am I my brother's keeper?' (Genesis 4:9). The Torah teaches through this the root of all evil, the denial of responsibility for another, and sets against it the truth: yes, you are your brother's keeper.

Yet the story does not end in punishment. Cain regretted, 'my sin is too great to bear,' and God gave him a sign and protected him. The Sages relate that Cain repented, and that Adam met him and learned from him the power of repentance. Even the first murderer was not entirely sealed off, for the door of repentance is open even to him.

What do we learn from him, precisely from the negative? That all evil begins with the denial of responsibility for another, 'am I my brother's keeper,' and that repentance is the opposite: to recognize that yes, we are our brothers' keepers. Cain also teaches that even one who has fallen into the deepest abyss is not beyond the reach of repentance, if only he acknowledges his sin.