The Mark of Sin

(10) “What have you done? Hark, your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground! (11) Therefore, you shall be more cursed than the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. (12) If you till the soil, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. You shall become a ceaseless wanderer on earth.” (13) Cain said to ה', “My punishment is too great to bear! (14) Since You have banished me this day from the soil, and I must avoid Your presence and become a restless wanderer on earth—anyone who meets me may kill me!” (15) ה' said to him, “I promise, if anyone kills Cain, sevenfold vengeance shall be exacted.” And ה' put a mark on Cain, lest anyone who met him should kill him. (16) Cain left the presence of ה' and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

Translation of the Sulam Commentary

Rabbi Abba went to Kapotkia, and Rabbi Yossi was with him. While they were walking, they saw a man coming and a mark was on his face. Rabbi Abba said, "Turn away from this path, because his face testifies to him having transgressed against sexual indiscretions in the Torah, and this was marked in his face." Rabbi Yossi said, "If he had that mark from when he was a child, what sexual indiscretion could he have committed then?" [Rabbi Abba] said to him, "I see in his face that he has committed a sexual indiscretion in the Torah."

Rabbi Abba called and said to him, "Say, this mark on your face what is it?" He told them, "Please do not punish that man [me] any more, because his [my] iniquities gave him [me] that mark." Rabbi Abba said, "What is it?" "One day my sister and I were walking along the road, and we were staying in an inn, and we got drunk on wine, and all that night I held my sister. In the morning I got up, and the owner of the inn was having a fight with a person. I went in between them, to separate them from each other, and they sorted me out, that is, they beat me, one from this side, and one from that side, and this mark was impressed upon my forehead. I was saved by a doctor who was among us."

He said to him, "Who is the doctor?" He said, "Rabbi Samlai." He said, "What kind of medicine did he give you?" He replied, "A medicine of the soul. And from that day I repented. And every day I saw my face in the mirror without change, and I wept before God, who is the Lord of the worlds, for that iniquity, and I washed my face with those tears." Rabbi Abba said, "If it had not prevented you from repenting, I would have removed that mark from your face, but I call upon you, 'Your guilt shall depart and your sin be purged away.'" (Isaiah 6:7) [Rabbi Abba] said to him, "Say it three times." He said it three times and the mark disappeared.

Rabbi Abba said, "Surely your Master wanted to remove the mark from you, because you must be in repentance." He said to him, "I vow from this day forward, to engage in Torah day and night." [Rabbi Abba] said to him, "What is your name?" He replied, "Elazar." [Rabbi Abba] said, "El Azar (God helped). Surely the name ensured that your God help you and be with you." Rabbi Abba sent him off and blessed him.

Another time, Rabbi Abba went to Rabbi Shimon, entered his city and found that man who had the mark on him was sitting and expounding, "'A brutish man cannot know, a fool cannot understand this.' (Psalm 92:7) How foolish are the people of the world who do not watch and do not know and do not look to know the ways of God, what they are about in the world. What prevents them from recognizing their shortcomings is that they do not engage in the Torah, because if they were engaged in the Torah, they would know the ways of God ..."

Rabbi Abba said to him: "You spoke well. Where did you get that from?" He replied "This is how I learned. And I learned that the same evil inheritance, of the spirit of impurity, is inherited by all His people, if they do not repent, because you have nothing that stands in the way of repentance. And as for me, this is how I learned: this remedy, namely repentance, was given to me once when my face was marked. And one day I was walking along the road and I met one of the righteous, and through him it was removed from me. He asked me, 'What is your name?' I told him 'Elazar.' And he called me 'another Elazar (God helps another).'" Rabbi Abba said to him, "Blessed is the Most Merciful that I saw you, and I was privileged to see you in this. Blessed is your lot in this world And in the next world. I am the one who met you."

He bowed before him. [That man Eleazar], he brought him to his house, and he made before him three measures of bread, and a third-born calf (cf. Sanhedrin 65b). After they had eaten, the same man said to him, "Rabbi, tell me one thing. I had a red cow, the mother of the calf, whose flesh we eat, and one day, before she got pregnant and gave birth, I followed her to a pasture in the desert, and while I was leading her, a man passed by and asked me what the name of this cow was. I said, "Since the day she was born I haven't called her by name." He said to me, "Batsheva, the mother of Solomon, she is called, if you merit to be atoned for your iniquities." Before I could turn my head, I did not see him, and I laughed.

"And now that I have merited the Torah, I am awakened to that incident. From the day Rabbi Samlai passed away from here, there was no man who enlightened us in the Torah like him, and I am afraid to say a word of Torah that I did not learn. This thing that the man said to me, I looked at it as a thing of wisdom, but I don't know." [Rabbi Abba] said to him, "It certainly is thing of wisdom. It is a supernal hint, above and below ..."

[Elazar] said to him, "Blessed is the Most Merciful that I heard this. Blessed be He who gave me peace in the beginning to earn it. It is written, "Peace, peace, both for far and near, says the Lord. [And I will heal him.]" (Isaiah 57:19) When I was far away, God preserved for me peace, that is, brought me closer, to be close." Rabbi Abba called upon him, "[May] you [be in] peace, your house [be in] peace, and all that belongs to you [be in] peace!" (I Samuel 25:6)