Hevel: The Journey of an Intangible Word

(3) The Torah has the nature and richness of poetry, which is speech in poetic language. Everyone familiar with learning knows that poetic language differs from prose narrative in two features, its nature and richness:

A.) In poetry, the idea is not laid out clearly the way it is in a prose narrative, and it requires observations from the side [marginal notes? reading 'sideways'?] explaining to what narrative each stanza refers. This is not “derush”; this is actually the nature of the poem, even a simple poem...This is also the nature of the entire Torah, as the story in it is not explained well [fully]. Rather, one needs to add glosses and commentaries to explain the language. And this is not derush, it is the simple [pshat] approach to understanding Torah.

B.) The richness of poetry consists in its being uniquely capable of alluding to things outside the conceptual scope of the poem, such as when the first letters of each stanza follow the order of the alphabet or the name of the author. It is well-known that in order to achieve this richness, the composer will often have to almost “bend the language,” so that the beginning of each line will be the precise letter the poet is seeking (hanidrash lo). And this feature can be found in the entirety of the Torah...And this is not true only of the Torah, but of all sacred scripture.

[trans. incorporates the Sefaria translation and that of R' David Kasher]

(1) Now the Human knew*knew Heb. yada‘, often in a sexual sense. his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gained*gained Echoing the Heb. wordplay: qanithi, connected with “Cain”; lit. “created, acquired.” a person*a person Or “someone new.” Lit. “a participant whose involvement defines the depicted situation.” Unlike “man” in contemporary English, Heb. ’ish can include infants in its denotative scope, as here and in Isa. 66.13. NJPS “male child”; trad. “man.” Cf. note at Num. 30.4 and see the Dictionary under ’ish. with the help of*with the help of Or “as did”; precise force of Heb. ’et uncertain. יהוה.” (2) She then bore his brother Abel. Abel became a keeper of sheep, and Cain became a tiller of the soil. (3) In the course of time, Cain brought an offering to יהוה from the fruit of the soil; (4) and Abel, for his part, brought the choicest of the firstlings of his flock. יהוה paid heed to Abel and his offering, (5) but to Cain and his offering [God] paid no heed. Cain was much distressed and his face fell. (6) And יהוה said to Cain,
“Why are you distressed,
And why is your face fallen?
(7) *Meaning of verse uncertain. Surely, if you do right,
There is uplift.
But if you do not do right
Sin couches at the door;
Its urge is toward you,
Yet you can be its master.” (8) Cain said to his brother Abel …*… Ancient versions, including the Targum, read “Come, let us go out into the field.” and when they were in the field, Cain set upon his brother Abel and killed him. (9) יהוה said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (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,*more cursed than the ground See 3.17. 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 יהוה, “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) יהוה said to him, “I promise, if anyone kills Cain, sevenfold vengeance shall be exacted.” And יהוה put a mark on Cain, lest anyone who met him should kill him. (16) Cain left the presence of יהוה and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

(1) ותוסף ללדת את אחיו את הבל. ...The Torah fails to mention why Chavah called her second son Hevel.
There is nothing unusual in the Torah not providing the reason for the name Hevel, as there are hundreds of names which have not been explained in the Torah. None of the names of the people in the generations between Sheth and Noach have been explained. Perhaps, the reason why Chavah called the second son Hevel is an allusion to Psalms 62,10 כי הבל בני אדם כזב בני איש, “men are mere breath; mortals illusion.” Perhaps Chavah expressed her realisation that even the good found in this material world may prove short-lived, illusory, as her brief sojourn in Gan Eden had taught her. Seeing that both her husband’s and her own life had become very difficult compared to what it had been like, she showed that she had assimilated this truth as being something she had to bequeath to her offspring now that she had children. It is immaterial in this connection if Hevel was named by her or by her husband.

(1) וקין היה “and Kayin had become, etc.” We would really have expected the Torah to write ויהי קין עובד אדמה, similar to the Torah’s describing Hevel’s vocation as ויהי הבל רעה צאן, “Hevel became a shepherd of sheep.” The reason the Torah changed its style in describing the respective vocations of the two brothers was that there was a cardinal difference between the vocation of the one and the vocation of the other. Hevel was a righteous person whereas his brother Kayin was a wicked person...

(8) Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Abel was stronger than Cain, as the verse need not have stated: “rose up.” Rather, it teaches that he had been situated underneath him...

And Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: When Moses ascended on High to receive the Torah, the ministering angels said before the Holy One, Blessed be He: Master of the Universe, what is one born of a woman doing here among us? The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to them: He came to receive the Torah. The angels said before Him: The Torah is a hidden treasure that was concealed by You 974 generations before the creation of the world, and You seek to give it to flesh and blood? As it is stated: “The word which He commanded to a thousand generations” (Psalms 105:8). Since the Torah, the word of God, was given to the twenty-sixth generation after Adam, the first man, the remaining 974 generations must have preceded the creation of the world. “What is man that You are mindful of him and the son of man that You think of him?” (Psalms 8:5). Rather, “God our Lord, how glorious is Your name in all the earth that Your majesty is placed above the heavens” (Psalms 8:2). The rightful place of God’s majesty, the Torah, is in the heavens. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Moses: Provide them with an answer as to why the Torah should be given to the people. Moses said before Him: Master of the Universe, I am afraid lest they burn me with the breath of their mouths. God said to him: Grasp My throne of glory for strength and protection, and provide them with an answer. And from where is this derived? As it is stated: “He causes him to grasp the front of the throne, and spreads His cloud over it” (Job 26:9).

Rav Hamnuna said: Jerusalem was destroyed only because schoolchildren there were interrupted from studying Torah, as it is stated: “And I am filled with the wrath of God, I cannot contain it, pour it onto the infants in the street and onto the gathering of youths together, for men and women alike will be captured, the elderly along with those of advanced years” (Jeremiah 6:11)...Rav Yehuda said that Rav said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “Do not touch My anointed ones and do My prophets no harm” (I Chronicles 16:22)? “Do not touch My anointed ones,” these are the schoolchildren, who are as precious and important as kings and priests (Maharsha); “and do not harm My prophets,” these are Torah scholars. Reish Lakish said in the name of Rabbi Yehuda Nesia: The world only exists because of the breath, i.e., reciting Torah, of schoolchildren. Rav Pappa said to Abaye: My Torah study and yours, what is its status? Why is the Torah study of adults worth less? He said to him: The breath of adults, which is tainted by sin, is not similar to the breath of children, which is not tainted by sin. And Reish Lakish said in the name of Rabbi Yehuda Nesia: One may not interrupt schoolchildren from studying Torah, even in order to build the Temple. And Reish Lakish said to Rabbi Yehuda Nesia: I have received from my ancestors, and some say that he said to him: I have received from your ancestors as follows: Any city in which there are no schoolchildren studying Torah, they destroy it. Ravina said: They leave it desolate.

...Rabbi Elazar says in the name of Rabbi Aḥa: One who studied but does not teach, you have no greater hevel than this.

“It is written in this language, of the “hevel” of schoolchildren, and not of the ‘learning’ of schoolchildren, because schoolchildren do not know what precisely they are learning, and they have no intention, but rather are [simply] breathing from their mouths outward. And therefore we are all sustained by the hevel of their mouths only in this material world which is the earth. But an adult that learns Torah appropriately, with intention, regarding such a person it is written: “I have put my words in your mouth” (Isaiah 51:16) - if God, may God be Blessed, puts them [Torah] in the adult’s mouth, he [the adult] will help grow - with strength and intention - not just the lower world that is the earth, but also the heavens will be established, as it is written: “I, who planted the skies and made firm the earth” (ibid.) - the skies, due to understanding and intention; and the earth, due to the hevel of their mouths. However, because adults sometimes speak needlessly and engage in slander and gossip, they end up destroying here and building there, which is not true of schoolchildren who have no wicked speech to destroy but only to build. And this is why negation language is used: “the world [i.e. the earth] is only sustained through the hevel of schoolchildren.”