Talmud sur La Genèse 4:10

MISHNAH: How does one instill fear in witnesses in criminal cases⁹⁵A criminal trial is one where the punishment is either death or flogging. Flogging is potentially life-threatening. A crime for which the punishment is a fine is tried as civil infraction under the rules of civil suits.? One brings them in and instills fear in them. Maybe you would testify by a guess, or by a rumor, or from the mouth of a witness, or you heard it from a trustworthy source⁹⁶This still is hearsay evidence which is inadmissible., or maybe you do not know that we shall examine you by cross-examination and interrogation¹Cross-examination is the interrogation of witnesses which changes from trial to trial. Investigation is the determination of answers to the obligatory questions enumerated in Mishnah 5:1.. You should know that criminal trials are not like civil trials. In civil trials a person⁹⁷On whose incorrect testimony another person was found owing money. pays money and is forgiven. In criminal trials, his blood and the blood of all his descendants hang in the balance, to the end of all generations. So we find when Cain slew his brother, it is said: The sounds of your brother’s bloods cry to me from the earth⁹⁸Gen. 4:10; cf. Gen. rabba 22(21).. It does not say your brother’s blood but your brother’s bloods, his blood and that of his descendants. Another explanation⁹⁹This is a possible correct interpretation of the verse, not to be used as sermon in court. Cf. Gen. rabba 22(22).: Your brother’s bloods, the blood was splashed on trees and stones.
Therefore man was created single in the world to teach that for anybody who destroys a single life it is counted as if he destroyed an entire world, and for anybody who preserves a single life it is counted as if he preserved an entire world. And because of peace among men, that nobody could say to another, my father was greater than your father. And that sectarians¹⁰⁴In general, מין denotes a Jewish Christian. If Jesus was identical in nature with God, he could not have been created or born. If Jesus was similar in nature to God, his creation would contradict the thesis of unique creation of man. If Jesus was simply referring to himself as God’s son in the meaning of Deut. 11:1, he is no power in Heaven. could not say, there are a plurality of powers in Heaven.
And to proclaim the greatness of the King over kings of kings, the Holy One, praise to Him. For a man coins many coins with one die; they are one like the other. But the King over kings of kings, the Holy One, praise to Him, stamps every man with the stamp of the first man, but no one is like any other. Therefore, everybody is required to say, the world was created for me.
Maybe you will say, why should we go to all this trouble? There already is written: If he is a witness, or saw, or knew¹¹²Lev. 5:1. As usual, the implication is from the part of the verse which is not quoted: If he do not tell, he has to bear his sin., etc. Maybe you will say, why should we be guilty of this man’s blood? There already is written: In destruction of evildoers is clamor¹¹³Prov. 11:10..

The world was created with ten utterances. Why were all ten necessary? In order to teach you that anyone who performs one commandment, or keeps one Sabbath, or saves one life, [the Torah considers it] as if he had sustained the entire world, which was created with ten utterances. And anyone who commits one transgression, or breaks one Sabbath, or causes one life to be lost, the Torah considers it as if he had destroyed the entire world, which was created with ten utterances. For this is what we find with Cain, who killed his brother Abel, as it says (Genesis 4:10), “The voice of your brother’s bloods [cry out to Me from the ground].” It should say “blood,” but it says “bloods.” This teaches that it was also the blood of his children and his children’s children, and all his future generations, until the end of the human line, that would have one day descended from him. They all stood up and cried out before the Holy Blessed One. (So you learn from this that one person is considered as important as the entire work of Creation.)