PURITY IS FOREVER
Excerpted from a talk by Rav Aaron Schechter
In this week’s Parsha, Breishis, the Torah relates the story of HaShem’s creation of His world. As one might expect, there are remarkable secrets that we might glean from this Parsha. One such secret lies tucked away in the story of Lemech and his two wives.
The wives of Lemech, a descendant of Cain, refrained from being with him. Their concern was the fact that their great grandfather Cain killed his brother Hevel and was doomed to have all his descendants destroyed. They argued, therefore, that since they already bore two children to Lemech and had already fulfilled the mitzvah of having children, what was the point of having any more children if they will be destroyed in the end anyway. On the basis of this argument they refrained from being with Lemech.
Lemech went to his great grandfather, Adam, to solicit his input. Adam himself had refrained from being with Chava as a self-imposed punishment ever since Ha-Shem sent them out of Gan Eden. Adam spoke to Lemech’s wives and told them that HaShem wants them to populate the world and whatever HaShem may do as a consequence of Cain’s sin has no relevance to them. They must heed the Will of HaShem. Upon hearing these words they turned to Adam and said “Dress yourself before you dress others, or, practice what you preach” in other words, “what about you and Chava? Why do you separate from Chava if HaShem’s Will is to populate the world?” Adam took their words to heart and Adam and Chava had their third child, Sheis (Seth). As the Parsha continues, the Torah teaches us that it was Noach’s descendants, who came from Sheis’s family, who survived the Mabul (the Great Flood). Whereas the family of Cain perished.
Chava gave Cain his name to indicate that now she was a partner with HaShem in bringing life to this world. We can certainly assume that her intentions were pure and wanted Cain to be a committed servant of HaShem. Cain’s name indicates Chava’s pride that her child was her acquisition, her child represented her partnership with HaShem. In spite of her best intentions, the lineage of Cain terminated with the Mabul.
Her intentions with Sheis, however, were purely for the purpose of fulfilling the Will of HaShem. In their mind, Adam and Chava had ended their career of parenthood. They abandoned the idea of bringing more children into the world. The sole reason that drove them to have another child was exclusively to fulfill the Will of HaShem; nothing else. It was only the argument that Adam told Lemech’s wives that brought Sheis into the world. When an endeavor is undertaken with the exclusive purpose of fulfilling HaShem’s Will its effectiveness will be everlasting.
Dovid Hamelech writes in Psalm 19 “the fear of HaShem is pure, it endures forever”. Behold! Dovid associates the quality of enduring forever with its quality of purity. Perhaps Dovid Hamelech learnt this secret from our Parsha.
Have a very safe and very wonderful Shabbos.
Paysach Diskind