By Nancy Patrick

In October, 2023, I wrote an article about the Hebrew term timshel (https://spiritofabilene.com/2023/10/13/prayer-for-timshel/). My interest in the concept began with my reading of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden last fall. My first reading of the novel took several weeks because of an its length and the dense language.

Steinbeck develops several pairs of characters that serve as foils to each other. These characters provoke confusing, philosophical, spiritual, emotional, and psychological thoughts about life and relationships. The characters also represent ideas about good and evil, fate and choice, and personal responsibility within family structures.

Adam Trask and his half-brother Charles share a father but have different mothers. Adam wants to avoid conflict at almost any cost. He wants to fulfill his responsibilities perfectly as he does everything expected of him. He possesses the gifts of grace, patience, and forgiveness. Another of his attributes, whether asset or deficit, is naiveté.

My reservation about the desirability of naiveté stems not only from the beauty of that innocence but also from the vulnerability associated with that kind of purity (idealism). I distinctly remember several former students about whom I worried because I foresaw their innocence and vulnerability leading to broken hearts. Those lacking that ethereal quality of goodness would avoid many of the emotional tragedies of those who expected only good from others.

A popular field of inquiry in sociology/psychology relates to personality or temperament differences among people. A family with multiple children provides a good backdrop to compare and contrast the siblings’ behaviors, thoughts, and emotions.

For example, first-born children tend to have certain characteristics that younger siblings lack. Younger siblings, depending on their birth order, also develop behaviors beneficial to that child’s placement in the family structure.

Complicating that simple formula of birth order with the extremely diverse and temperamental qualities of individuals creates a relational network that can affect a family’s entire lifetime. Children with radically differing abilities, needs, emotions, and personalities find themselves sharing the same parents, homes, and extended families. 

These children find ways to create their places within these families and with the individuals within those social networks. We all know of little girls who have their dads wrapped around their little fingers. We all have little Dennis the Menaces somewhere at our family reunions. We know our geniuses as we know our troublemakers. 

Children do not necessarily understand their roles in these relationships, but they do sense others’ feelings about them. In most cases, children will find ways to live up to what others expect of them. Sometimes one child who exhibits a sweet, kind, generous, and lovely nature becomes a target of jealousy from the child who lacks those attributes.

In East of Eden, Charles Trask sensed the loveliness of his brother Adam and felt unloved by their shared father. Charles often did mean, cruel things to Adam simply because Charles hated Adam’s goodness. Charles felt that Adam’s goodness stole their father’s affection even though Adam had no desire for that affection and would not tattle on Charles even when Charles nearly killed him in a brutal beating.

Steinbeck also uses the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis to illustrate the idea that goodness is not reserved for certain people. Cain’s jealousy over God’s acceptance of Abel’s offering and God’s rejection of his grain offering churned within him until he felt he had to murder his brother in order to have access to their father.

Finally, in East of Eden, the last brother duo, the twin sons of Adam Trask, found themselves in a similar situation to that of Adam and Charles with Aron having almost angelic qualities while Caleb embodied jealousy, anger, deceitfulness, and hatefulness. 

Interestingly, both Charles and Caleb had bouts of deep depression because they recognized their own meanness in contrast to their brothers’ goodness. In their depression, they felt doomed to evil whereas their brothers had been freely blessed with goodness.

Adam, Samuel Harrison, and Lee, important characters in the novel, delve into the concept of humanity’s free will as opposed to an inherited personality. Lee studied the Genesis passage in several translations to see the possible meanings of “thou shalt” when God told Cain “thou shalt” triumph over evil. The Hebrew word was timshel.

Lee discovered a beautiful meaning of this word as God said it to Cain. Rather than a command, the word offers a generous choice: “thou mayest.” And Cain did accept the offer and became the large and prosperous nation of Canaan.

We live in a world with many Charleses, Cains, and Calebs who have chosen the lure of power that sometimes accompanies evil choices. Many of them have lost any sense of morality or social responsibility.

I sometimes wish I had been born an Abel, Adam, or Aron; however, I feel just enough of Cain, Charles, and Caleb to identify with their self-loathing in my recognition of my darkness. That darkness, however, does not have to defeat the light in my soul. I “mayest” choose kindness, generosity, forgiveness, love, hope, patience, and tenderness—God longs to see me choose goodness. 

Nancy Patrick is a retired teacher who lives in Abilene and enjoys writing