The Oral Talmud with Benay Lappe and Dan Libenson Episode 94

MISHNA: How do they intimidate the witnesses in giving testimony in capital cases? They would bring the witnesses in and intimidate them by saying:

Perhaps what you say is based on conjecture, or based on a rumor, perhaps it is testimony based on hearsay, or perhaps it is based on the statement of a trusted person. Perhaps you do not know that ultimately we examine you with inquiry and interrogation. You should know that capital cases are not like monetary cases. In monetary cases, a person who testifies falsely can give the money to the proper owner and his sin is atoned for. In capital cases, if one testifies falsely, the blood of the accused and the blood of his offspring are ascribed to the witness until eternity, as we found with Cain, who killed his brother, as it is stated: “The voice of your brother’s blood [demei] cries out to Me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10).

The verse does not state: Your brother’s blood [dam], in the singular, but rather: “Your brother’s blood [demei],” in the plural -- both his brother’s blood and the blood of his brother’s offspring. (Alternatively, “your brother’s blood [demei],” written in the plural, teaches that that his blood was not gathered in one place but was splattered on the trees and on the stones.)

Therefore, Adam was created alone, to teach you that with regard to anyone who destroys one soul from the Jewish people, the verse ascribes him blame as if he destroyed an entire world. And conversely, anyone who sustains one soul from the Jewish people, the verse ascribes him credit as if he sustained an entire world.

And this was done due to maintaining peace among people, so that one person will not say to another: My father is greater than your father. And so that the heretics will not say: There are many authorities in Heaven, and each created a different person.

And this serves to tell of the greatness of the Holy Blessed One, as when a person stamps several coins with one seal, they are all similar to each other. But the supreme King of kings, the Holy Blessed One, stamped all people with the seal of Adam, the first, and not one of them is similar to another. Therefore, each and every person is obligated to say: The world was created for me.