a new-to-me spin on Kayin and Hevel

[cellio]

Our torah-study group has been in the fourth chapter of Genesis for a few weeks, studying the rivalry between Kayin and Hevel and the first recorded manslaughter (or murder, depending on whom you ask

Comments

[ichur72]

>> cited something like "tanchuma Yonatan", which I've been unable to find via Google so that's probably not exactly it

Try looking for Targum Yonatan.

[cellio]

Oh, thank you! This is pretty far off the beaten path for a translation (this one is a translation with interspersed commentary), so I hadn't thought to go down that path.

Here we go: full text, and the first part of the midrash I described. Looks like we need Targum Yonatan for the discussion and Br"R for the resolution.

[ichur72]

FWIW, the title "Targum Yonatan" is not correct in this instance. Yonatan ben Uziel did a translation of Neviim but not of the chumash. More info here.

[byronhaverford]

Wow. That really dichotomizes the two brothers. Pure goodness and strength on one side (perhaps a touch of arrogance). And pure deceipt and evil on the other. It makes them into symbols rather than multifaceted human beings.

I don't prefer that script. (Or maybe it just hits too close to home -- ask me some time about "why don't they give trophies for music"!)

[cellio]

I don't tend to consider any one midrash to be definitive (in anything); I find the contrasts among them (and between them and the p'shat, the plain reading of the text) to be an interesting portal into what's bothering the rabbis.

Though in this one I think Hevel can be read as more than a little arrogant. I can almost hear the provocative "nyah, nyah!". :-)

All that said, older siblings really don't do well anywhere in the book of B'reishit. :-)