[Avodah] Question Sin of Adam vs. Kayin

[Cantor Wolberg]

> Zev Sero wrote:
>
> 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?
> You missed the whole point. I'm not speaking about genetics. Everyone
> inherits genes. I'm speaking of the punishment specifically given to  
> them
> for which woman was made to suffer childbirth pain and man was made to
> have to labor by the sweat of his brow. That's not genetics. That  
> was the
> penalty that was given by God for the sin of Chava and Adam. You  
> used the
> word "inherited." This was not an inherited trait; it was  
> punishment. I don't
> expect us to have "inherited" anything from Kayin. My question is  
> why God
> didn't give some type of punishment (which could have been anything)  
> for
> which we all could have suffered as we did with the Eitz hadaas.
>
> My own answer to the question incidentally, is that Adam and Chava  
> were
> commanded by God not to eat of the fruit. Therefore, their  
> punishment was
> a direct disobedience and defiance of God Himself. In Kayin's case,  
> no formal
> commandment had yet been given by God not to murder. Hence, his  
> punishment
> was personal.
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