Eve came into the kitchen with a bright cheery smile on her face. "Mom, I'd like to help you prepare for dinner. Please tell me what I can do." Eve washed her hands and looked eagerly at her mom.
"I'm so proud to have such a helpful daughter," Eve's mom said, planting a kiss on her forehead. "Here, the first job I'll give you is to peel the cucumbers."
In a few minutes Eve presented the bowl of peeled cucumbers. "So fast?" her mom asked in surprise.
"That was so easy!" laughed Eve. "Can I have my next job now? As a matter of fact, Mom, would you tell me the next two jobs? I'll do them one right after the other." Soon, Eve had completed jobs number three, four and five, too.
Later, at the dinner table, Eve's mom praised her in front of all the children and guests. "It wasn't such a big deal," Eve said bashfully. "I was glad to do things for Mom."
"I think that the cucumbers had a lot to do with it," Eve's father said with a twinkle in his eye.
"What do you mean?" asked Eve's brother.
"We can learn a similar lesson from the Torah," he said.
Now everyone was really wondering. "Peeling cucumbers and the Torah?" someone exclaimed.
"Well, the lesson is not exactly about peeling cucumbers," his father replied. "I'll explain. Let's think about Eve and Mom in the kitchen this morning. Eve wanted to help, and the first job Mom gave her was peeling the cucumbers. That was an easy job and when Eve completed it, she felt happy and eager to do more. One job followed another, and everything was done.
"In the Torah we learn that if a person finds a bird's nest and wants to collect the eggs that are in it, he must first shoo away the mom. Once the mom bird is out of sight, he can take the eggs.
"Following this mitzvah, the Torah tells us about other commandments like building a fence around a house roof, commandments of the field and commandments about our clothing.
"Rashi tells us that these commandments are listed one after another because one good deed leads to another and another. Just like the first job Mom gave Eve -- the cucumbers -- was easy, and since it was easy, she finished quickly and was even more eager to continue to help.
"The Torah lists the commandment of shooing away the mom bird first in this group of commandments. It's an easy deed to do, and since one good deed leads to another, fulfilling this one makes it easier to perform other good deeds."
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