Sanhedrin (58b) If God had not specially permitted Cain to marry his sister, she would have been forbidden to him. This is difficult according to the opinion of Rabbi Akiva, who deems it permitted for a gentile to marry his sister. The Gemara rejects this proof: Once it was permitted for Cain to marry his sister, it was permitted for all descendants of Noah to do so, and it was forbidden only to Jews. Rav Huna says: A gentile is permitted to marry his daughter. And if you say, for what reason did Adam not marry his daughter? It was so that Cain would marry his sister, because it is stated: “The world shall be built on kindness.” And there are those who say that Rav Huna did not say this; rather, Rav Huna says: A gentile is prohibited from marrying his daughter. Know that this is the halakha, as Adam did not marry his daughter. The Gemara rejects this statement: But that is not so, as there, this is the reason Adam did not marry his daughter: So that Cain would marry his sister, because it is stated: “The world shall be built on kindness.” §
Or maybe Cain married someone else because G_d. Did not want him to marry his sister. So the chesed was that there were other humanoids created for this purpose
ReplyDelete> If God had not specially permitted Cain to marry his sister, she would have been forbidden to him
ReplyDeleteSo here's the difficulty with the Gemara. If Kayin was forbidden to marry his sister, who else was there to marry? Unless you're suggesting that there were other humans around that the Torah doesn't mention? Which would be hinted at in the Torah considering Kayin and his descendants built "cities" but you don't build a city for a single family.
> And if you say, for what reason did Adam not marry his daughter?
Maybe because he already had a wife and Kayin needed one of his own?
But "you don't understand" kicks in. Because people lived 1000 years, and women could give birth to 10 or 100 each time, pretty soon you get a city 😁
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