B'Reishis: blaming others

Parshat B'Reishis

We find the snake tricking Chava into eating from the Tree of Knowledge, and she proceeds to get Adam to eat. Hashem comes looking for them. He comes to Adam in the Garden of Eden and asks him why he ate from the Tree he was not supposed to eat from?

Adam blames it on Chava. She made me do it.

Hashem approaches Chava and asks why she did it. She blames the snake. he made me do it.

Hashem approaches the snake and tells him off. he then curses the snake, goes back and curses Chava and then Adam.

This is a good lesson. I said to my kids - What happens if Tzvi writes on the wall. I come to him and scream at him, "What's going on??!! Why'd you do that!!??"

Tzvi says, "Mickey told me to do it."

I go to Mickey and ask what happened. He blames it on Nachum.

So I go to Nachum. In the end they all get punished.

It does not help to blame others.

It is the natural reaction. Adam blamed Chava who blamed Snake.

But it got them nowhere. They all got punished.

I wonder what would have happened had Adam just said, "Sorry God. I know I did something wrong. Please forgive me. I will try to do better next time" instead of blaming others. Would he have gotten the same punishment? Would Hashem still have chased down Chava and the snake? I do not know.

But I do know that they all tried to blame someone else and in the end they all got punished for it.