Shalom my friends, this is Simcha Hochbaum of Hebron coming off the high of the holidays of Succot and a great Hoshannah Rabbah this year, seeing the unification of all of the Hatufim, all the hostages coming out and being able to reunite together with the families.
I had the privilege to daven on Hoshanna Rabbah at the very spot of the Nova Festival and exactly two years later, where all the atrocities took place we were able to hear the jubilant cheers and the unification of parents and children, boyfriends, girlfriends, brothers and sisters, once again reuniting together and returning out of the hells of Gaza with their families.
This Shabbat we read about the first murder that ever took place in the world. It all starts with the two brothers Cain and Abel, the children of Adam and Eve.
The Arizal writes that in every generation there are souls that come from that source of Cain and souls of holiness that come from the source of Abel.
These two souls always are in conflict with each other. The attributes of Cain are that severe jealousy, fighting, and not being able to rejoice in his brother’s success is in every single generation.
We have to remember, Cain used a lot of psychology before he kills his brother. Hazel tell us that Abel was overpowering Cain and Cain realized to play on that mercy that Abel has
וַיֹּ֥אמֶר קַ֖יִן אֶל־הֶ֣בֶל אָחִ֑יו
and right away tried to rouse within him this compassion. And he said to him, you’re my brother. Let’s not fight. Let’s find a way to work things out. The very second Abel released his grip on Cain וַיָּ֥קָם קַ֛יִן Cain got up אֶל־הֶ֥בֶל אָחִ֖יו וַיַּֽהַרְגֵֽהוּ and he killed him.
This has always been the story of the Jewish nation. The souls of Abel always had this mercy and this compassion and this natural tendency to want to believe in the goodness of the world and in mankind.
Sometimes we have to remember how evil Hamas could be, to always remember October 7th, to always remember the terrorist who got freed and not repented sinners, but they’re murderers who we had no choice but to release in order to save the Hatufim.
We have to remember who the real Cain is, and Beezrat Hashem, and hopefully, hopefully, just as we read in the book of Beresheet we could go back, to that Garden of Eden, to that pure state, the way God saw the world, it wasn’t just good, it was very, very good.
We are able to live in the Garden of Eden with peace and tranquility. And there really will be a new page here in Eretz Yisrael and the history of Am Yisrael. Amen and amen.
