Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. They both bring offerings before God.

And although Cain is the first born, God turns his face towards Abel. And he shows Abel

favor. So Cain gets angry about this. And you can imagine him thinking, God, what's

wrong with my offering? And aren't I the first born? Don't I deserve your favor?

God's response to Cain is essentially, you're assuming that there's no exaltation for

you too. Just because I went to the lowest one first. And so now you've got a choice.

Whether you will do good or not do good based on this moment. And be careful, because

there's an animal at the door. Moral failure is like an animal. But just like I called

your parents to rule over the animals and they didn't. They let an animal rule them.

You have a chance to rule this inner animal. And what you got to do.

We know how the story ends. Cain lets the croucher within take over. He murders his brother in

cold blood. And in spite of this, God surprisingly shows him mercy.

Just like God didn't enforce the death penalty in the moment on his parents. Because he said,

in the day you eat of it, you'll die. And in the day the eat of it, they're exiled

to the realm of death, but they don't die. So in the same way, God comes to the murderer,

which in the rest of the Torah is capital crime. And God not only forgives Cain, but also

sets a sign on him that seven times over he will protect Cain's life from anybody who

might want to kill him.

Cain's story is humanity's story. When we don't think we get what we deserve, we plot

and we take it for ourselves, even at the expense of others. And so, we can stop and we can

empathize with Cain. I mean, it's hard to be in a place where God's face doesn't seem

to be shining on you. It's hard to see others succeed when you fail. Especially when it

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