Feature Tidbit
for Parashat Ekev

Lesson from the Red-hooded one...

Let's say that the story of Little Red Riding Hood is supposed to teach us something. Let's say that it supposed to teach us to listen to our mothers and not to put ourselves in dangerous situations. Red's mom told her to stay away from the woods, and she didn't listen. And she almost got herself and Granny into a lot of bad trouble.

No matter how many times a parent or babysitter reads the story to the young ones, Little Red Riding Hood will never change. You'd think after what keeps happening to her she'd learn her lesson. But she doesn't. Countless times she chooses the path through the woods. And gets into trouble over and over again.

So what's the point? She doesn't change. Ever.

But we do. And that is the point. No matter how many times we read about the Sin of the Golden Calf, the people still do the wrong thing. The spies return from their scouting mission and give their terrible report and recommendations. Kalev gets up and gives a passionate pitch for Aliya. We know what happened the first time, why do the people still cry and complain against G-d and Moshe?

Dor HaMidbar, the generation of the Wilderness, did what they did, and they cannot change what happened, no matter how many times we read, hear, and study the parsha.

It would be silly to ask them why they make the same fatal mistakes every time we read the Torah. But it is not at all silly to ask ourselves (and maybe each other) why we don't change when we see the results of repeated disloyalty to G-d. We, the Jewish People throughout the generations read through the Torah and study its words and lessons over and over again. We see what happens in the Chumash and in Tanach when the Jewish People turn away from G-d and His Torah. The question we must ask AND ANSWER is why WE keep doing the same things. Little Red Riding Hood will keep going into the woods. But why do we?

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