Abel and Cain and Rachel

Eve gave birth to Cain, who became a farmer, and Abel, who became a pastoralist. Some time, Cain offered a fruit sacrifice to God and Abel offered the first borns of his sheep as a sacrifice to God.  God respected Abel and his offering but not Cain nor his offering. God chastised Cain. Cain later murdered his brother Abel in a field. Then, God asked Cain where Abel was. Cain famously responded: "Am I my brother's keeper?" And God said that Abel's blood was crying from the Earth and then God cursed Cain and his descendants to have hard lives. Cain was less than pleased and worried that he, vagabonding, would be killed. God responded by promising that if anyone killed Cain God would get them back 7X worse. Cain went east of Eden to Nod, found a wife, built a city, and named it after his son. A rather lengthy and complex lineage followed.

I'll comment only that I think it's interesting that two of the earliest stories in the Torah deal with the idea of banishment. First, humans are banned from Eden; next, humans are banned from the presence of God (or so, it's not entirely clear). I wonder why banishment is so important and central to Judeo-Christian creation.

Fortunately, I've not had a particularly Cain-Abel-esque relationship with my sister. She is three and a half years older than me and I am happy to call her a friend. We certainly bickered (and still do) but have had a bad relationship. I like spending time with her and our interests overlap, though they are also quite different. I've visited her at college, we went to the inauguration together, and though we didn't see much of each other this summer, we Skyped insofar as the time difference allowed us to do so. I'm glad I have an older sister rather than younger and/or brother and I'm glad that my older sister is pretty darn cool.