“Malky!” Basya said excitedly, as she ran over to her friend after the recess bell rang. “I have the best idea ever!”
“Ooooh let’s hear!” Channie said, joining them.
“You remember how Morah Esty said that her five year old niece is very sick in the hospital and she was very happy when Morah brought her an arts and crafts project to help her fill her day? I figured out a project we can do to help out all sick children!”
“Oh I love it already,” Malky gushed. “Bikur cholim and a project all rolled up in one. Tell us more.”
“We’ll make coloring books for them!” Basya said, talking quickly out of excitement. “We’ll draw beautiful sketches for them to color in and make it into a real coloring book. And my Uncle Ben who prints the Toras Avigdor booklets on his big fancy printing machines, I bet he’ll print up the coloring books for free! And then we can give them out to all the children in the hospital.”
“C-c-could I help?” came a shy voice from behind them.
The girls turned around to see Devorah, the quietest girl in their class standing there, blushing furiously.
“You want to help?” Basya asked, confused. Devorah had never talked to her before. She just usually spent her recess alone doing arts and crafts projects.
“Y-yeah, I like to draw. I also have a cool idea for the cover of the coloring book.”
“Um - yeah, of course, we’d love to have your help!” Basya said, quickly regaining her composure. “And maybe Morah Esty will let us work on it as a class project!”
A few minutes later, the bell rang and the girls made their way back to their classroom.
“Girls,” Morah Esty said as everyone took their seats. “Devorah stopped me on my way into the classroom and told me about this wonderful idea that she came up with for a class project.”
Basya looked up in shock. “That she came up with”?!! This was her idea, and Devorah told the teacher about it as if it were her own? As Morah Esty told everyone about the coloring book project, Basya glared over at Devorah who quickly looked away, her face bright red. What was Devorah thinking? How dare she steal her idea and call it her own?
Basya couldn’t pay attention to anything Morah Esty said for the rest of the day. All she could think about was how she came up with this amazing idea and now Devorah was taking all of the credit.
“H-h-i Basya,” Devorah said to her after the bell rang and the girls began gathering their things, but Basya was too angry at Devorah to speak with her and she stomped off and headed home
“Hi Basya, how was school?” Mommy asked as Basya walked into the kitchen
“Terrible!” Basya said angrily. “It was the worst day ever!”
“Oy, I’m so sorry to hear that! What happened?”
Basya told Mommy all about her great idea and how she was now not going to get any credit.
“Oy, I’m so sorry,” Mommy said kindly. “But I want to show you something.”
Mommy pulled out a little craft made from colorful yarn.
“A girl named Devorah from your class stopped by a few minutes ago,” Mommy said. “She told me that she was the one who told the teacher about the idea and that she was so nervous that she forgot to mention it was your idea.”
“Well she should have corrected the teacher when she got all the credit,” replied Basya, folding her arms stubbornly.
“She said she’s terribly sorry about what happened and she wanted me to give you this.” Mommy handed Basya the yarn craft, which Basya took and looked at with a raised eyebrow.
“This?” Basya said in disgust. “She thinks some stupid arts and craft project will make things better? What am I going to do with this?”
“Well,” Mommy said slowly. “Do you think Hashem has what to do with the smell of burning animals?”
“What?” asked Basya, confused.
“Well, in this week’s Parsha it says that Hashem smelled the ‘pleasant smell’ of Noach’s korbanos and as a result said he would no longer curse the land because of aveiros. Do you think that Hashem really needs the smell of burning korbanos?”
Basya thought about this, still not sure what it had to do with anything.
“Basyaleh,” Mommy said. “It’s not about what Devorah gave you - it’s the fact that she tried to do something nice for you. Think about how Hashem saw Noach trying to do something for Him. Even though Hashem didn’t need his korban, yet Hashem still accepted his sacrifice. Don’t you think you can see that Devorah is trying to make sholom with you by giving you something that she made? Even if you don’t need it, it shows that she cares.”
Basya looked down at the braided yarn in her hand.
“Yeah I guess that makes sense. Thank you Mommy for explaining this. I should probably call Devorah and thank her - and also apologize for ignoring her earlier today.”
Have A Wonderful Shabbos!
Takeaway:
We learn from Hashem to accept any form of appeasement in order to forgive others.
Let’s Review:
- Why is Basya upset with Devorah?
- What’s the connection between Noach’s Korban and Devorah’s yarn craft?
