Breishet- Rejection

When reading this parshah there was one thing that really stuck out to me. When Abel, son of Adam and Eve, offered his choicest of the firstlings of his flock, God accepted his gift and paid heed. However when Cain, son of Adam and Eve, came with the fruit of his soil, God did not accept and paid no heed.

There could be many reasons for this. God may have simply not liked Cain, or might not have been a big fan of fruit, but it is my belief that God set out to test Cain. God merely wanted to see if man was strong enough to deal with rejection from God. Unfortunately Cain wasn‘t. He went out and killed Abel. When God asked about this he replied “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Thus being our first example of back-talk.

When God did not accept his gift, he was not just testing Cain, but the entire world. God wouldn’t just pick Cain for no reason, God thought Cain was the strongest person there, in that four people population world. If God had just picked anybody, the outcome could have been much worse. God wanted to see what man would do, but being unable to pick everyone, God founded the strongest and tested him. If he couldn’t do it no one could.

I think just this little bit of the parshah has a lot to say. It shows how hard rejection from God can be on a person. Someone that you have built your beliefs off of, your life off of for some, the mere foundation of your soul, is now refusing the little kindness you can give to them. Roll this one around awhile, if you were to give something to God and He did not accept, what would you do?

I hope you wouldn’t go off to kill the next person God accepts a gift from. I don’t know what I would do, though. It seems like something so far away. I have never tried to give a gift to God. I like to think it is a gift when I come to synagogue to pray with the entire community, that that is a gift. When the only thing anybody in that room is in there to pray to God.
Of course though, during those times, literally the only people on earth were Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel. They didn’t even make a minion. So the only way to give a gift to God was through what the grew with their hands, and took care of through their love.

I think the only thing we could do if ever to feel rejected by God, is to remember this:

“Why are you distressed,
And why is your face fallen?
Surely if you do right,
There is uplift.
But if you do not do right
Sin crouches at the door;
It urge is toward you,
But you can be its master.”

Remember that you can be its master. When all is against you don’t go into the easy temptation of evil. In the end it won’t pay off. When Cain had done evil it was only him who took fall. Forced to run from what he once built his life upon.