Cain's Shidduch Crisis

Parshat Bereshit

by Avi Billet 

 The Biblical account of the creation of mankind is one of the most difficult series of passages in all of the Torah. Scores of interpretations have tried to bring light to the most hidden secrets embedded within the text, many of them fraught with controversy. Some take Creation literally, and some argue that it has deeper, non literal messages, and that the world is far older than 6000 years of history, as calculated through the Bible's stories.

 In 1925 the "Scopes Monkey Trial" convened in Dayton with the schoolteacher John Scopes on trial for teaching evolution, a practice which, at the time, was prohibited by law. He was prosecuted by a team of lawyers which included three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan. Over the course of the trial, Bryan himself took the stand as an expert of the Bible. His purpose: to explain how the Bible is to be understood literally, leaving evolution as an impossibility.

 One of the questions and comments raised by the defense attorney, Clarence Darrow, was "Did you ever discover where Cain got his wife?... Where she came from you do not know." (based on 4:17) Bryan affirmed that this problem never bothered him and should not be taken as a proof that the Bible contains holes and flaws.

 An objective reading of the description of the creation of man strengthens this question: if we are eventually told of the births of Adam’s sons and daughters (5:4 – after the birth of Shet, the son who “replaced Hevel”), why are we not told of the births of any other children earlier on - daughters for example – especially if they will play such important roles in populating the world as the wives of Adam’s sons?

 Chazal offer the interpretation that Cain and Hevel were each born with a twin sister he would eventually marry. While the twin idea introduces a perfect match for Cain's personal shidduch crisis, the literal minded reader of the Torah is left searching for a better answer.

 A simple reading of the text of Breishit may show how the Torah in its original form may even contain the answer to the question of Cain's wife.

 Rav Mordechai Breuer notes the two accounts of creation in the Torah, the first in chapter one and the second in chapter two, each of which teaches us a different aspect of God’s creating in this world. The first chapter uses the name “Elokim” alone and focuses on “briah” – ex nihilo creation of the natural order, while the second chapter introduces the Tetragrammaton name to the creation of man and focuses on “yetzirah” – fashioning the world as per God’s specific task for mankind.

 Rav Breuer’s approach is very complicated, and he painstakingly goes through a very detailed explanation to support his argument that the Torah is written with two “bechinot” – perspectives in mind, each aimed at presenting a different aspect of God’s role in this world. To be understood best, it should be read in its entirety.

 Rav Breuer does not suggest the following, but using his groundwork as a springboard it is possible to suggest a literal solution to the origin of Cain’s wife.

 The sixth day (chapter one) lays the groundwork for the creation of humanity: male and female are placed on earth at the same time, unnamed, to fill their natural order of inhabiting the earth.

 The account in chapter two focuses directly on the creation of a specific, at-first partnerless, man, Adam, who is later given an “ezer k’negdo,” his wife, Chava. These specific humans are placed in Gan Eden to care for the garden, and are commanded to stay away from the Tree of Knowledge. Their existence is in a higher spiritual realm than the male and female of chapter one.

 The traditional approach is that both accounts refer to the same two humans.

 An objective reading of these two chapters, however, does not need to equate the original "male and female" population with Adam and Chava, especially since the two accounts have completely different timeframes guiding the creation of the humans in question. In this reading, Cain's wife may be a product of the humans mentioned in the account of the creation of humanity of chapter one.

 In stating that Cain’s wife was a product of the same pregnancy as Cain, the truly authoritative Chazal chose to address a question they could have just as easily ignored. As William Jennings Bryan felt no need to question her origins, we the faithful can certainly satisfy ourselves with the interpretation of the great sages who came before us.

 But they addressed the quandary of Cain’s wife’s origins because a question one has on any aspect of the Torah needs an authoritative answer. Our challenge is to seek out the answers to our questions, using the wisdom of our forebears as guides to finding the truth.

 Arguably the greatest lesson in the growth of a mind steeped in Jewish thought and practice is how to ask the really hard, yet really important questions, and how to develop the drive to leave no stone unturned while seeking the answers which help us come closer to real understanding in the lifelong struggle to comprehend the essence of the Torah.