The Religious Roots of Violence: Judaism III

Wishing he was an only child

(Previously on the LHG)

In 1979 a small group of Jewish women and children from Kiryat Arba crawled through the window of an abandoned hospital in Hebron, occupying it illegally and establishing a a Jewish settlement on the site, Beit Hadassah. In time the settlement grew to more than fifty families with some 450 Jews sequestered in what amounted to an armed fortress in a city of more than 100,000 Muslims. The land is sacred, it is Jewish sacred land, and the Jews must take what is theirs by divine right.

A Jewish text records the debate of sages 1800 years ago on why Cain murdered Abel. By naming what drove Cain to kill, each sage meant to identify the source of human violence. According to one, a twin sister was born with Abel and the brothers fought over who'd possess the only available woman. Another sage argued that the brothers agreed to divide everything in the world between them. One claimed the shirt on his brother's back and ordered him to strip; the other claimed the ground under his brother's feet and shouted, "fly."

Blows followed, then blood.

The third sage, a Rabbi Levi, also said the brothers agreed to split the world. But then, he said, one claimed the land where Israel would reside, the other insisted it was his, and "Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and slew him."

The history of fratricide began, said Rabbi Levi, with a fight over the Holy Land.

Sources:
Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, Is Religion Killing Us?
Gershom Gorenberg, The End of Days