When Kayin experienced the uneasy feelings of envy, jealous of God’s accepting his brother’s offering, he felt justified in acting upon those emotions and killing his brother. The culprit, he figured, would be God, who implanted within him the feelings of envy and rage that brought him to bloodshed.
The Torah in Parashat Bereishit tells the famous story of Adam’s sons, Kayin and Hevel, which resulted in Hevel’s murder at the hands of his jealous brother.
The Midrash Tanchuma presents a dialogue between Kayin and God following the murder, one which sheds light on Kayin’s thinking and rationale in deciding to murder his kin:
When the Almighty said to him [Kayin], “Where is your brother, Hevel?” (4:9), he said to Him, “I do not know – am I my brother’s guardian? You are the one who guards all creatures, and You’re asking me about him?” This is comparable to a thief who stole vessels at night and was not caught. In the morning, the guard caught him. He said to him, “Why did you steal the vessels?” He said to him, “I am a thief, and I did not relinquish my craft. But you – your craft is to stand guard at the gate. Why did you relinquish your craft and now say this to me?” Similarly, Kayin said, “I killed him. You created within me an evil inclination. You guard everything, and You allowed me to kill him. You are the one who killed him…for if you had accepted my offering like [You accepted] his, I would not have been envious of him!”
When Kayin experienced the uneasy feelings of envy, jealous of God’s accepting his brother’s offering, he felt justified in acting upon those emotions and killing his brother. The culprit, he figured, would be God, who implanted within him the feelings of envy and rage that brought him to bloodshed.
Kayin subscribed to the belief that people should not be held accountable for their misconduct which results from strong emotions that overtake them. If we feel an instinctive urge to act in a certain way, he felt, then we are perfectly justified in our decision to act upon those feelings.
The Torah, of course, teaches that to the contrary, we are capable of restraining our emotions and acting correctly even when we feel a desire to act otherwise. Indeed, before Kayin’s murderous act, God instructed him, “…it will cling to you, but you can exert control over it” (4:7). Rashi explains this clause as referring to the yetzer ha-ra, and emphasizing the ability we each have to oppose our natural instincts even when they “cling” to us relentlessly.
We cannot dismiss our wrongful conduct as simply the natural result of our ingrained impulses over which we have no control. We are, instead, to constantly work to overpower our instincts and, difficult as it may be, live disciplined lives in strict accordance with God’s will.
(Based on a sicha by HaRav Yehuda Amital, available at http://vbm-torah.org/archive/sichot67/01-67bereishit.htm)