Comentários de Citação sobre Gênesis 4:13

Our sages of old considered the sin of submitting inter-Jewish disputes to gentile jurisdiction as consisting of a number of violations of the Torah. The author proceeds to illustrate this by means of an example:
It is generally admitted that murder is one of the most severe offenses that man can commit and the Torah punishes it severely. It is a facet of the seven Noachide commandments concerning which the Torah wrote that he who spills the blood of a human being will have his own blood spilled by the hands of humans (Genesis 9,6). Sanhedrin 37 points out that by killing a single human being, very often all his potential offspring is also “killed,” i.e. prevented from ever being born. In other words, it is impossible to know the number of potential human beings who are denied life through the murder of a single human being. There was a time when Adam was the only inhabitant of the universe. Had someone, even an animal, killed him at that stage the human race would have been wiped out through a single act of murder. This puts into perspective the famous saying of our sages that anyone who kills a single human being is viewed as if he had murdered a whole world full of human beings (Sanhedrin 37). The reverse is true of someone who saves the life of even a single person. By doing so, he may be equivalent to saving the entire human race. All of this brings home to you the enormity of the crime of killing a single human being without due process of law. In spite of the severity of the crime of murder, the crime of robbery and desecration of the Holy Name of G’d is considered as even more serious. The sin of murder is subject to forgiveness if the murderer repents truly as we know from Kayin who murdered his brother Hevel and who repented and was forgiven (compare Pirke d'Rabbi Eliezer who takes the words (Genesis 4,13: “my guilt is too heavy to bear” as proof of Kayin’s repentance). Not so the sin of robbery. Repentance does not wipe out the sin of robbery unless the robber had first restored the property in question to the victim. If no restitution is made his sin will never be forgiven. The same applies to the sin of desecrating the name of the Lord. This is a sin more serious than any of those punishable by death at the hands of a human tribunal or even at the hands of G’d, i.e. karet. Our sages (Yuma 86) state that if someone is guilty of a sin for which the death penalty by execution or karet is mandatory (but has not been carried out) and the sinner has repented and Yom Kippur has passed before he died or has been executed, (if there were no witnesses, or similar) then his repentance may achieve a suspended sentence and the afflictions he suffers in this world may eventually wipe out his guilt. If, however, he is guilty of desecrating the name of the Lord, none of these measures will help him achieve atonement. Only his death may eventually atone for his sin. Our sages base this on Isaiah 22,14: “then the Lord of Hosts revealed to my ears; this iniquity shall never be forgiven you until you die.” Anyone who submits inter-Jewish disputes to a gentile tribunal thereby becomes guilty (at least inadvertently) of both the sin of robbery and the sin of desecrating the Lord’s name (whose judges he rejected by implying that G’d’s justice is defective). By going to pagan judges to seek justice one enhances the reputation of pagan religions and their deities in whose name justice is meted out.
The Torah (Deut. 32,31 ) has said: “for their Rock is not like our Rock, yet our enemies judge us.” The Torah means: “when our enemies act as our judges.” Anyone who voluntarily chooses non-Jewish courts and has read the passage we cited displays drunkenness and total confusion in his thinking. This is what Isaiah 29,9 had in mind when he spoke of: ”they are drunk but not from wine, they stagger but not from liquor.” People who act in this manner abandon primary pillars of Judaism in the hope of securing or retaining secondary values (the money or property under dispute). This is considered robbery in the true sense of the word. David (Psalms 16,4) had this to say about this kind of behavior: ירבו עצבותם אחר מהרו, “those who have other gods will suffer many afflictions for the sake of mohar, financial gain” (compare Rashi on that verse).
Turning to non-Jewish courts is also considered an act of robbery. One commits unknowingly complete robbery if he is awarded money or property by that court. Seeing the recipient of such a reward considers the money so obtained as rightfully his, he will never restore it to the true owner and will remain guilty of this act of robbery. This is why he will never be forgiven.
Concerning the word תשים, “you will place,” an unusual word to say the least, this is to teach the judges to whom this paragraph is primarily addressed, to explain the basis for their judgment to the litigants. They have to explain which proof convinced them to rule as they did. Our sages (Sanhedrin 31) say that the word תשים is equivalent to the loser telling the judge: “please write down for me on the basis of which halachah in the Torah you have decided in favor of my adversary.”

Evil gossip is a greater sin than “mere” murder, idolatry or indulging one’s carnal instincts indiscriminately. Proof that it is worse than murder is deduced from Genesis 4,13 where Kayin describes his sin as too severe to endure its burden. It is more serious than indulging one’s carnal instincts with partners forbidden to one as we know from Joseph (Genesis 39,9) who explained the severity of that sin to the wife of Potiphar. It is more serious than idolatry seeing that when Moses described this sin committed by the Jewish people to G’d when they worshipped the golden calf he said: “indeed the people committed a very great sin.” When describing the sin of לשון הרע on the other hand, (Psalms 12,4) David invokes G’d pleading: “may the Lord cut off all flattering lips, every tongue that speaks גדולות, “arrogance.” The commentators understand the plural of the word גדולות in that psalm as describing the sin of abusing the power of the tongue as a “double” sin, i.e. more severe than a single sin such as worshipping idols, for instance. This is why Solomon said that life and death are at the disposal of one’s tongue.
Look at what happened to Miriam who was struck with the disease of tzoraat (Numbers 12,1) because she spoke against Moses. What did she do that was so terrible? She spoke to her own brother (Aaron) privately, not within the hearing of Moses nor of anyone else. She was well-intentioned meaning to reunite Moses with his wife whom he had divorced. The Torah describes G’d’s reaction as fierce, and had Moses not interceded on her behalf she would not have been cured. To this day we recite the lines of Deut. 24,9 in which the Torah demands that we remember what Miriam was guilty of and how G’d punished her. You may apply a little logic to see how serious is the ordinary sin of spreading evil gossip when you reflect on what happened to well-intentioned Miriam who had spoken privately to her brother. How will G’d react to people who deliberately besmirch someone’s reputation by the tales they spread about him? Consider what the Torah wrote immediately prior to the reminder to remember what G’d did to Miriam (Deut. 24,8) The Torah writes: “beware of the tzoraat affliction, be very careful and act according to everything the priests and Levites teach you.” Even Aaron, who was the High Priest, (and had not said a word) was struck with that affliction seeing that the Torah said that G’d was angry “at them,”‘ i.e. not merely at Miriam. Aaron was healed immediately, seeing his was the lesser sin as he had not said anything, had only listened without admonishing Miriam. We know that Aaron must have been cured immediately as the Torah only writes of Miriam having been quarantined outside the camp for seven days delaying the Israelites’ journey during that period (Numbers 12,15).
You will also find that the original serpent, the first creature ever to engage in slander against its Creator, was struck with tzoraat as the Torah reports G’d saying to the serpent “because you have done this, etc., you are cursed” (Genesis 3,14). The curse consisted of the serpent being afflicted with tzoraat. Our sages derive this from the expression צרעת ממארת היא in Leviticus 13,52. On these words Rav Hunna quoted a comment by Rabbi Joshua ben Levi who said that the scales on the skin of the snake are a form the tzoraat took when it afflicted the serpent (compare Bereshit Rabbah 20,4). This was not the full extent of the serpent’s punishment. We have a tradition that in the world to come (after the resurrection), people who suffered from diverse deformities while on earth the previous time will be resurrected as completely healthy and with unblemished bodies. The snake will be the only exception to this rule. Seeing that Isaiah wrote (Isaiah 35,6): ”then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall shout aloud,” the prophet prophesies resurrection of the beasts mentioning that domesticated beasts and lions will graze together; however the snake will still have to eat dust as it will never be cured from its affliction (compare Isaiah 11,6). The reason is that the serpent through its use of the tongue dragged man into the dust, (caused his mortality, Tanchuma Metzora 2).

The Torah said in the previous verse: "the earth had become full of this corruption in the form of violence." Why did the Torah reverse this sequence? It should first have stated what G'd saw, and afterwards the extent of the corruption. As it is, the Torah tells us of the effect before telling us of the cause! The inverted method of reporting is to emphasise that even after the earth had already become full of corruption, all of which is subsumed under the heading "violence," man added further abominations to those already perpetrated. Although it is G'd's virtue to forgive or suspend punishment (נושא עון) until the time He sits in judgment, the sins of this generation were such that G'd could no longer practice this virtue. It was somewhat similar to when Cain had said to G'd that he found his penalty too hard to bear. He had used the term גדול עוני מנשוא, "is my guilt too great to forgive (4,13)?" Alternatively, the words ותשחת הארץ refer to the actual deeds, which caused the earth to become full of destructive agents all of which are described as חמס. G'd informed Noach (6,13) of this when He told him that קץ כל בשר בא לפני, that "the end for all flesh is approaching." According to the Zohar this means that the destructive forces created by man's sins which are called קץ have appeared before G'd demanding the speedy destruction of the perpetrators of all this evil. The Torah tells us for how long G'd restrained the attribute of Justice. This is why we have repeated references to G'd's awareness of man's wickedness ever since 6,5. When the Torah here finally uses the word אלוקים to describe G'd, it is to give notice that the attribute of Mercy itself had turned into one demanding that justice be done.