Why Do The Nations Conspire?

“And He turned to Abel and to his offering.”

The church taught me the Second Commandment was only about statues and idols. I never imagined it was first spoken by a Jewish mother fleeing her own son’s violence.

Yet in Parashat Toldot, centuries before the thunder at Sinai, Rivkah utters the Second Commandment in Toldot almost word-for-word:

“Your brother Esau is comforting himself (מִתְנַחֵם) with the thought of killing you.” (Genesis 27:42)

Rabbi David Fohrman demonstrates that this single sentence is the exact precursor. It leads to “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Esau’s rage is not just anger. It has become his god.

How Esau Became the First Worshipper of “Another God”

In Hebrew, the verb מִתְנַחֵם (mitnachem) means “to comfort oneself.” After losing the blessing, Esau does not turn to Hashem for comfort. He turns to murder.

Murderous hatred becomes his new deity—the very first “other god” in human history after Cain.

Rivkah’s urgent warning to Jacob is therefore the Second Commandment in Toldot in its embryonic form:

Do not serve the god of revenge. Do not let violence sit on the throne where only Hashem belongs.

This is why the Rebecca Jacob Sinai mirror is so devastating to replacement theology. The Second Commandment did not begin with golden calves or Baal statues. It began when a Jewish mother identified the first false god humanity ever worshipped: the god of blood-revenge.

The Chiastic Proof – Side by Side

Sinai (Exodus 20:3)	Toldot (Genesis 27:41–42)
לֹא יִהְיֶה־לְךָ אֱלֹהִים אֲחֵרִים עַל־פָּנָיָ “You shall have no other gods before Me”	וַיִּתְנַחֵם הוּא לְהָרְגְּךָ “He is comforting himself by killing you” – serving the god of murderous rage

Watch Rabbi Fohrman lay this out:

• Aleph Beta / YouTube Part 1
• Aleph Beta / YouTube Part 2

Why This Matters for Jewish Chosenness

Every time Christianity or Islam claims the Torah’s commandments while rejecting the Jewish people, they repeat Esau’s original mistake.

They replace the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with the god of supersessionist revenge: “The Jews killed our savior” or “The Jews lost their chosenness.” That is modern avodah zarah—serving another god on the very face of the God who spoke to three million Jews at Sinai.

As Chazzan, I teach in Esnoga Beit HaShoavah: “We are not hated because we are worse. We are hated because we are the living witness that the Second Commandment in Toldot still applies. There is only one God. He never annulled His covenant with Jacob.”

Internal Links – Continue the Journey

• Essay 1: The Ten Commandments in Toldot – They Began with Rivkah, Not Sinai
• Why Does God Play Favorites? The Silence Cain Heard Wrong
• From Crypto-Jewish Mexico to the Torah of My Fathers – My Personal Return
• The Passover Lamb Was Never Jesus – It Was the Egyptian God

Where is your offering? Cain and Abel chosen are pivotal figures in understanding divine favoritism. Why did God reject Cain’s offering in the first place? The Torah never commanded offerings. It never said “bring the best.” So why does God turn to Abel and his offering… but not to Cain and his? Rabbi David Fohrman notices something almost nobody sees. The Hebrew is asymmetrical. To Abel: “And He turned to Abel and to his offering.” To Cain: “But to Cain and to his offering He did not turn.” God is not judging the gift alone. He is looking at the person and the gift as one. Where is your offering? Cain and Abel chosen need to reflect this.

The offering is meant to reveal the offer. Abel gives the firstlings and fat—his very essence. Cain brings ordinary fruit. Nothing that costs him anything deep. It doesn’t reveal Cain. So God’s silence is not rejection. It is the most loving invitation imaginable: “Cain… I want you. Show me you.” Where is your offering? Cain and Abel chosen reveal insights into acceptance. But Cain hears silence as “I don’t want you.” Instead of looking inward, he looks outward in rage. Jealousy is born. Murder follows.

Here is Rabbi Fohrman’s staggering conclusion: God creates the appearance of favoritism on purpose. The very first “chosen vs. not chosen” is a mirror for all humanity. When it feels like God loves someone else more, the problem is almost never that God loves you less. It is that you have stopped giving Him the real you. Where is your offering? Cain and Abel chosen by God teach us this valuable lesson. This is the seed that will bloom at Sinai. The same question—“Why this nation?”—gets the same answer: God chooses those who choose to give Him their deepest selves. Where is your offering? Cain and Abel chosen exemplify this across history.

Cain and Abel is not a story about why Abel was better. It is a story about why God sometimes withholds His face… to invite us to chase it. And the tragedy is that Cain never hears the question behind the silence. That question still echoes today. God is still whispering the same words He spoke to Cain: “Show me you.” Will we finally hear the invitation? How many words do you count in this reflection on where is your offering? Cain and Abel chosen?

Beit HaShoavah – Return, Repent, Rejoice https://beithashoavah.org

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