In this week’s parsha, Adam and his wife eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. G-d calls to Adam and asks, “Where are you (Ayeka)?” Adam answers: “I was afraid…so I hid…The woman whom You gave [to be] with me gave me from the tree and I ate…The woman said [to G-d],‘The serpent misled me and I ate.’”
If G-d is all-knowing, why does He ask where Adam is? What is G-d really asking when He says ayeka?
This parsha teaches that we cannot hide from G-d. G-d knows exactly where we are – not only what we are doing, but what we are thinking. With His question ayeka, G-d challenges Adam to accept responsibility for his actions. Rabbi Yisroel Jungreis and Rabbi Osher Anshel Jungreis note that the Hebrew word ayeka can be read another way, as eicha, meaning “how?” G-d is asking Adam how he could have sinned, how he could have ignored the first and only commandment that G-d gave. G-d is asking Adam to examine his life, his thoughts and his actions and to be accountable for them.
Instead, Adam shifts the blame to his wife, and his wife blames the serpent. Neither is willing to accept responsibility. Neither one has the courage to say, “Forgive me, I was wrong. Let me redress this wrong."
"'Where are you?'" explains Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, "is G-d's perpetual call to every man. Where are you in the world? What have you accomplished? You have been allotted a certain number of days, hours, and minutes in which to fulfill your mission in life. You have lived so many years and so many days. Where are you? What have you attained?"
As parents, we must teach our children to take responsibility for their actions. We cannot allow them to blame others for their mistakes. We must teach them from the earliest ages that their actions have consequences, and they should not make excuses. And when they admit their wrongdoings, we should emulate G-d -- embrace them and forgive them.
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