[Avodah] Question

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Oct 18, 2009 at 02:26:25PM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
: 1. We are descended from Sheis.

This goes to the question of why the pasuq tells us about Ne'amah, that
she descends from Qayin, but doesn't tell us /why/ she is mentioned.
Do we consider it a pointer that we should know we have lineage from
Qayin, or that Hashem intentionally omits connecting Mrs Noach and thus
us to Qayin?

: 2. Adam and Chava's punishment changed their nature and the whole
: world's nature.  As their genetic descendants, we naturally inherit
: those changes, just as the descendants of someone who undergoes any
: mutation, for any reason, inherit it.  Kayin's punishment was to wander,
: and after seven generations to be killed; what exactly is it that you
: expect us to have inherited from him?  

Doesn't this just presume the conclusion -- why were the consequences of
Chava's and Adam's actions of the sort that they are inheritable, but
Qayin's, not?

Personally, I think it's more that the onesh is causal -- once the
concept of sin existed, people had to be mortal, the world had to be
worked, and birth had to come with pain. The first aveirah, perhaps even
regardless of its content, changed how people relate to the world.

The clock can't be unwound so as to make sin non-exist, so the oneshim
caused by knowing that aveirah is possible can't be undone either.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A sick person never rejects a healing procedure
micha at aishdas.org        as "unbefitting." Why, then, do we care what
http://www.aishdas.org   other people think when dealing with spiritual
Fax: (270) 514-1507      matters?              - Rav Yisrael Salanter