Lost in the Forest

Rav Simcha Bunim once explained a teaching of the Baal Shem Tov (see Avos 6:2). The regret and the urge to return that stir in a person's heart are really a bas kol, a heavenly voice that summons each of us every single day to do teshuvah. He gave a mashal.

A father and his young son were riding in a wagon piled with goods, on their way to sell at the yearly spring fair. The road ran through a forest full of blossoms, and the boy begged his father to halt so that he could gather some flowers. The father said no. The wagon would keep moving, he warned, and a boy left behind could easily lose his way.

The son had an answer. He would pick slowly, he promised, and shout to his father from time to time. So long as his father called back, he would hear where the wagon was, follow the sound, and rejoin him once his hands were full.

The father gave in. The boy jumped down and the wagon rolled on. After a while the father called out, “My son, my son.” Nobody answered. In despair he hid his face in his hands. He understood that a child who could hear him would have found his way, and that silence meant the boy was lost.