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Adapted from Talmud Bavli, Shabbat (Shabbat 146a)
Edition William Davidson Edition - Vocalized Aramaic Translation English translation by Maggid , since no free public English translation of this passage exists.
License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC-BY-NC) When the serpent came upon Eve, he cast pollution into her. Israel, who stood at Mount Sinai, their pollution ceased; the nations, who did not stand at Mount Sinai, their pollution did not cease. And this differs from the view of Rabbi Abba bar Kahana. For Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: Until three generations the pollution did not cease from our fathers: Abraham begot Ishmael, Isaac begot Esau, but Jacob begot the twelve tribes, among whom there was no blemish at all.
שֶׁבָּא נָחָשׁ עַל חַוָּה הֵטִיל בָּהּ זוּהֲמָא, יִשְׂרָאֵל שֶׁעָמְדוּ עַל הַר סִינַי — פָּסְקָה זוּהֲמָתָן, גּוֹיִם שֶׁלֹּא עָמְדוּ עַל הַר סִינַי — לֹא פָּסְקָה זוּהֲמָתָן. וּפְלִיגָא דְּרַבִּי אַבָּא בַּר כָּהֲנָא. דַּאֲמַר רַבִּי אַבָּא בַּר כָּהֲנָא: עַד שְׁלֹשָׁה דּוֹרוֹת לֹא פָּסְקָה זוּהֲמָא מֵאֲבוֹתֵינוּ: אַבְרָהָם הוֹלִיד אֶת יִשְׁמָעֵאל, יִצְחָק הוֹלִיד אֶת עֵשָׂו, יַעֲקֹב הוֹלִיד שְׁנֵים עָשָׂר שְׁבָטִים שֶׁלֹּא הָיָה בָּהֶן שׁוּם דּוֹפִי.
Commentary According to B. Shabbat, Eve had sexual relations with the serpent in the Garden of Eden and the snake deposited a pollution in Eve that entered into her children and her children's children. However, this explanation does not distinguish between the seed of Seth and the seed of Cain. When Israel accepted the Torah at Mount Sinai, the seed of Seth was purified of the pollution the snake had deposited in Eve and that had entered her children's children. The same cannot be said of the seed of Cain. This myth about Cain's conception and the seed of Cain derives, in part, from Genesis 5:3: When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he begot a son in his likeness after his image, and he named him Seth. This is taken to imply that Cain was not Adam's son. The Zohar (1:55a) explains that neither Cain nor Abel was born in Adam's likeness, based on the verse She conceived and bore Cain, saying/1 have gained a male child with the help ofYahweh (Gen. 4:1). The Zohar takes this to mean that both Cain and Abel stemmed chiefly from Eve, rather than Adam. Seth, by contrast, bore Adam's image. <AIN AND ABEL 449 The tradition that there are two lines of descent, from the seed of Adam and from the seed of Cain, is found in Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer and other sources. Some attribute this tradition to Rabbi Ishmael and other to Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai. This midrash offers an explanation for the existence of Israel's enemies, explaining that they were all descended from the seed of Cain. During and after the Holocaust, the Nazis were sometimes identified as the "seed of Cain."
