(Translated from a Hebrew shiur)

The woman who owned the grocery store was puzzled by the unfortunate fellow who entered her shop every morning at about 8:30. Every morning he asked for the same thing, yesterday's bread, and every time he stressed that he did not want today's fresh bread. She sold it to him for a few pennies. She was convinced that he was a poor widower who could not even afford to buy fresh bread. She was a kind-hearted woman, and so she decided to give the man a nice surprise...

The following morning she prepared a loaf of fresh bread, cutting it into slices and carefully buttering each slice. However, she wrapped it in newspaper, as she usually did, and waited expectantly for her poor client. When he entered the shop at his regular hour, with his routine request, she simply handed him the parcel she had prepared that morning, smiling inwardly at the unexpected joy the man would feel when he opened his parcel of bread.

The next morning, our poor friend walked into the store with an angry look on his face. "What did you do to me?" he shouted. "You caused me thousands of dollars worth of damage! I always trusted you, and now you have ruined things for me!"

The kind-hearted woman was stunned. For what reason did she warrant such an attack? What had she done?

"I am an architect," the man continued. "I've been working for over half a year on a new project in the south side of town. We draw our architectural plans on special paper with a special type of pencil. To make corrections or erase lines we use lumps of stale bread. Fresh bread does not erase, and worse, it makes smudges. Yesterday, I was preoccupied with my work, and I tore off a small piece of the bread you had given me, in order to erase something in a very important part of the plan. Suddenly, I saw bits of fresh bread and butter smeared all over the plan. I tried to fix the mess with a dry towel, and even a wet one, but to no avail. I only succeeded in making it worse, and to top it all, I tore the paper. Now, I'm going to have to do the whole thing from the beginning again. Thanks a lot!!" With that, he turned his back and stormed out of the store.

The Moral

This meshol can be used whenever someone tries to make "corrections and improvements" in Torah and mitzvos, based on logic and human understanding. If he does not understand the fundamental principles of Torah and mitzvos (and it is impossible to grasp G-d's entire plan and purpose), he will ruin things rather than improve them.

For instance: I have been involved in many discussions where the other side argues, "Now abortions are a useful and even morally desirable thing. I work in a slum area, and if you saw the hundreds of hungry and uneducated kids hanging around those areas, getting themselves into trouble, you would agree with me that it would have been better if they had never been born!" Or, "to forbid driving a car in our times on Shabbos is foolishness. In the old days, hitching up a wagon to horses was work, but turning a key in the ignition, and pressing a gas pedal can hardly be called work! Quite the contrary. Driving on Shabbos allows many people to come to synagogue and that's why my Conservative Temple is always full on Friday night. We have over 100 participants in the Friday night service, whereas you at the Chabad shul have only about 25, because everyone has to walk there!" (This I heard in California).