"Come on, people now/ Smile on your brother..."

.
“And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not; Am I my brother’s keeper?”
-- Gen. 4:9


“It is no exaggeration to claim that the rest of the Bible is a resoundingly affirmative response to Cain’s query.”

-- Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, “Jewish Wisdom,” p.45

I have been taught that God only asks questions in order to hear the answer. What I mean is, God KNOWS the answer to everything and simply wants to see if the person being asked will tell the truth.
Like a parent asking a child if they broke a vase.
Or when a cop asks you, “Do you know why I pulled you over?”

I was discussing this passage with my wife yesterday and she enthusiastically added, “It’s like Bruce Willis in ‘Pulp Fiction!’”

“Huh?” I responded.

“Y’know, when he’s tied up in the basement, along with Marcel Marceau--
“You mean Marcellus Wallace?”
”Righ, when the two of them are captured and Bruce Willis escapes, and is about to leave-- but goes back down to save him. He’s being his brother’s keeper.”

And I fell in love with her all over again.
Because my wife connected the book of Genesis with male rape. What a woman!

But that’s what it means to be your brother’s keeper— consider other people’s feelings, help them if they need it, use a samurai sword to save them from Zed's butt-plundering.

In 1994, Gene Siskel and Samuel L. Jackson discussed “Pulp Fiction”:

Siskel: I recently asked Samuel L. Jackson about the most common negative reactions to the ‘Pulp Fiction’…[Some people say] It has no moral center.

Jackson: The story is totally about redemption. Everyone in the script whose life is spared is given another chance to do something WITH their lives.”
So… God, Samuel L. Jackson and my wife—they all think alike.

And all three of them can scare the hell out of me.
.