How Cain Was Conceived

Jewish tradition offers some truly wild explanations, digging into the murky origins of good and evil itself.

One fascinating, and frankly disturbing, thread revolves around Cain's conception. It's a story that implicates not just Adam and Eve, but also angels, serpents, and the very nature of impurity. Buckle up.

The story starts with Samael, a powerful angel – sometimes even considered a prince in Heaven. According to Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer, after God created the world, Samael, with his band of followers, came down to Earth and found the serpent – the shrewdest of all creatures, as Genesis 3:1 tells us. But here’s the twist: Samael rides the serpent like a camel! On this reptilian steed, Samael approaches Eve in the night and… seduces her. The result? Cain.

Pause for a moment. Let that sink in.

Now, the plot thickens. The story continues that after Eve is pregnant by this angelic encounter, Adam comes to her, and she conceives Abel. Talk about a complicated family tree!

But wait, there's more! Some versions, found in places like the Talmud (B. Shah. 146a) and the Zohar, suggest the serpent himself was the seducer. After witnessing Adam and Eve together, the serpent develops a passion for her, even fantasizing about killing Adam and taking Eve as his own. So, he takes matters into his own hands, possesses her, and infuses her with lust. That, they say, is how the serpent fathered Cain. The Zohar even states, "From the impurity with which the serpent infected Eve emerged Cain." Yikes.

And what's the consequence of all this? The tradition says that Eve was infected with the serpent's impurity, and as a result, all of Israel was impure until the Torah was given on Mount Sinai. Only then, they say, did Israel's impurity cease.

When Cain was born, Adam supposedly knew immediately that he wasn't his own. Cain didn't look like him – he looked like a heavenly being! Eve herself, upon seeing Cain's otherworldly appearance, exclaimed, "I have gained a male child with the help of Yahweh" (Genesis 4:1). Targum Pseudo-Yonathan even translates this verse as "I have acquired a man, the angel of the Lord."

It wasn't until the birth of Seth that Adam finally had a son in his own likeness and image. And here's the kicker: the righteous descend from Seth, while the wicked descend from Cain. It's a stark division of good and evil, rooted in the very act of conception. The Zohar (1:54a) goes so far as to say that Cain was conceived from the side of unholiness, while Abel was from the side of holiness.

But why this elaborate story? Well, it's an attempt to grapple with that enigmatic verse in Genesis 4:1, to explain Cain's inherent wickedness, and, perhaps, to explore the nature of temptation and impurity.

It's also worth noting that some see an anti-feminine bias in the idea that Eve was infected by the serpent’s impurity. It can be read as portraying women as untrustworthy. However, it’s important to remember that other texts portray Eve in a very favorable light, as the mother of all generations, a life-giver.

Ultimately, this myth invites us to consider the complex interplay of free will, divine influence, and the origins of evil. The serpent, in Kabbalah, becomes a principle of evil, lurking in the Sitra Ahra – the Other Side, the realm of evil ruled by Samael and Lilith. This primal serpent is like an exaggerated version of the Yetzer ha-Ra, the Evil Impulse within us all. The Zohar (2:52a) describes it as "eternal death, on the left side, that enters into a man's innermost secret parts."

So, the next time you read the story of Cain and Abel, remember the wild backstory – the angels, the serpents, and the battle for the very soul of humanity. It's a reminder that the struggle between good and evil is often more complicated, and perhaps even more primal, than we imagine. What do you think?

Commentary

This myth is a response to the enigmatic verse in which Eve says, I have gotten a man with the aid of Yahweh (Gen. 4:1). Targum Pseudo-Yonathan translates this verse as "I have acquired a man, the angel of the Lord." One reading of this verse in the Talmud (B. Shah. 146a) suggests that Eve had intercourse with the serpent: "When the serpent consorted with Eve, he cast impurity into her." This interpretation is echoed in the Zohar: "From the impurity with which the serpent infected Eve emerged Cain." Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer builds on the talmudic interpretation, but changes it in an essential way. Here the true father of Cain is the angel Samael, who came to Eve riding on the serpent. Indeed, in this passage the angel and serpent are closely linked, creating a satanic figure and suggesting that Eve had intercourse with the serpent, a powerful phallic symbol. In Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer , the Torah upbraids Samael as he rides upon the serpent like a camel: "The Torah began to cry aloud, saying, 'Why, O Samael, now that the world is created, is it time to rebel against God? Is this the time to lift yourself on high? God will laugh at the horse and its rider/" This establishes the role of the Torah as the defender of the human race against the evil intentions of Samael. Zohar 1:36b explains that two came upon Eve, the serpent and Adam, and that she became pregnant from both of them, and bore two sons. The son of the serpent is, of course, Cain. In order to explain why Cain was evil and Abel was good, Zohar 1:54a explains that Cain was conceived from the side of unholiness and Abel from the side of holiness. As a result, Abel was in the likeness of God's image, as stated in the verse And God created man in His image (Gen. 1:27). But Cain was of the likeness of the nether image. Just what this is isn't clear, although one commentary, Ziv ha-Zohar, identifies the nether image as that of an ape. Because Cain was from the side of the Angel of Death (another possible explanation of the "nether image"), he killed his brother. The idea that Eve was infected by the impurity of the serpent when she had intercourse with it attempts to portray women as not only impure, but also untrustworthy. It is part of an extensive antifeminine bias found in some rabbinic texts. However, in other texts. Eve is portrayed in a very favorable manner. She is regarded as the mother of all generations, and she is called a life-giver, who nursed the whole world (B. AZ 43a). The serpent of Genesis becomes transformed in kabbalah into a principle of evil, the primal serpent who makes its home in the darkness of the Sitra Ahra, the Other Side. It is a serpent by the road , a viper by the path (Gen. 49:17). It comes down from above, swims across bitter waters, and descends in order to deceive, lying in wait to ambush mankind with sins. The Sitra Ahra is the realm of evil. It is said to be ruled by Samael and Lilith. The primal or primordial serpent is an archetype of evil, based upon the serpent in the Garden of Eden. In this realm it functions as a force of evil, an exaggerated version of the Yetzer ha-Ra, the Evil Impulse in every person. Here this impulse is understood to be an underlying principle in the concept of an evil realm. Evil, however, flourishes only in the absence of good. The Zohar describes this serpent as "eternal death, on the left side, that enters into a man's innermost secret parts" (Zohar 2:52a). See the closely related myth, "The Seed of Cain," p. 448. For a Hasidic tale about the primal serpent, see "Reb Shmelke's Whip" in Gabriel's Palace, p. 226.

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