In this week’s Torah Portion (Berieshes 4:10) we are told of two brothers Kayin and Hevel – the first brothers of human history. Kayin and Hevel couldn’t get along, and one brother, Kayin kills his brother Hevel. The verse says the bloods of your brother are crying from the ground. The commentaries ask why the Torah says bloods. Bloods is plural! Wouldn’t it make sense for the verse to say the blood of your brother is crying?
I would like to share an incredible answer that I heard from my father, Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer: When Kayin killed his brother Hevel, Kayin was not just killing Hevel. Kayin was killing all his brother’s potential. He was killing everything that could’ve resulted from his brother. Kayin was killing all the prodigies, all the generations, and all the students – all the people who could’ve been impacted or influenced by Hevel! That’s why the verse says ‘bloods’ and not blood!
The lesson to us is as follows: It is critical and crucial for us to realize that each and every person is a constellation! Every single person is a galaxy! Every person is a universe! When one heaven forbid hurts or embarrasses a person – when one ostracizes or bashes a person, he may not just be banishing one person. He can be banishing everything that that person represents! He may be evicting everything that that person stands for! He can be banishing everything that could have come from that person! That’s how dangerous it is! When one hurts or rejects another person, all his potential can be lost!
We must all realize that our actions don’t just affect one person they can affect generations! Your words can affect that person’s children and his children’s children… We must be so careful! Of course, this goes the other way around if one says a positive word to someone – if one smiles at another person, one cannot fathom how much he can do for that person as well as his physical and spiritual descendants!
Rabbi Shlomo Heineman was once giving a Torah class. It was a blustery, cold day. There was a terrible snowstorm, and the streets were inundated with snow. Most people weren’t venturing out. However, he came to give a class. It was a huge self-sacrifice and tremendous devotion on his part. He came to give class and most of the boys didn’t show up, only a few boys were there for the Torah class. However, Rabbi Heineman was very fiery and dynamic, and – he gave this electrically charged class – the same way that he would give a class when the school was packed. After the class, some of the boys asked him, “Rabbi, with all due respect you could have been more subdued. There were only a few of us here. Why did you have to give such a riveting shiur and dynamic shiur as if the whole yeshiva was here? It was just a few of us!
Rabbi Heineman told these boys these immortal and famous words: Do you think I’m just talking to each and every one of you? I’m not just talking to you. I’m talking to your souls. Each and every one of you contains a huge soul – and that soul may be biological descendants to come, and it may be spiritual descendants to come. If you’re a teacher and you teach students, you make an impact. You inspire people. You’re kind to people. You are igniting. You are elevating and uplifting more and more souls. It could be inestimable and innumerable, countless souls. So, when I give a shiur to you today on this freezing cold day with all the snow, I’m not just talking to you. I’m talking to all your spiritual and biological descendants! It’s a never-ending chain! We can see from here how our words and actions can affect future generations! One’s actions can affect eternity!
