Monkey Business

Parshas Nasso (5778)

This issue is dedicated to the merit of Eliyahu Eliezer ben Rachel.
May G-d send him a Refuah Sheleimah, a complete and speedy recovery. Amen.

Just yesterday my mom e-mailed me the following humorous piece called Life on The Front Porch (author unknown), which I thought I would share with all of you:

On the first day, G-d created the dog and said, “Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this I will give you a life span of twenty years.”

The dog said, “That’s a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I’ll give you back the other ten?”

And G-d said that it was good.

On the second day, G-d created the monkey and said, “Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I’ll give you a twenty-year life span.”

The monkey said, “Monkey tricks for twenty years? That’s a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the dog did?”

And G-d again said that it was good.

On the third day, G-d created the cow and said, “You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer’s family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.”

The cow said, “That’s kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I’ll give back the other forty?”

And G-d agreed it was good.

On the fourth day, G-d created humans and said, “Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I’ll give you twenty years.”

But the human said, “Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?

“Okay,” said G-d, “You asked for it.”

So that is why for our first twenty years, we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years, we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years, we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years, we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Reading the above reminded me of a Midrash I once saw that also involves monkeys and the many stages of life.

In the beginning of Koheles (Ecclesiastes), one of the twenty-four books of Scripture which is traditionally read publicly in the synagogue on the holiday of Succos, King Solomon seven times calls the physical world a place of hevel - vanity or futility.

The Midrash (in Koheles Rabbah 1:3) relates this to the seven stages of a person’s life:

At one year of age, man can be likened to a king, doted upon by all. At two and three he is like a pig, groping around in the garbage and putting everything in his mouth. At ten he prances around like a baby goat, never sitting still for even a moment. At twenty he can be compared to a horse, preening and grooming himself in search of a mate. When he takes upon himself the responsibility of marriage, he is like a donkey that carries a burden on its back (a good burden though it may be). When he has children, he becomes brazen as a dog trying to find food and money to feed his family. And when he gets old, he becomes like an ape.

Most commentators understand the comparison of man to a monkey in his final stage of life to mean that he becomes hunched over and senile, somewhat resembling an ape running around in the jungle.

The Kotzker Rebbe ZT”L understood this Midrash differently. He explained that the nature of an ape is to imitate. Just as it is the way of an ape to imitate humans, so too, a person, when he has become old(er), imitates himself, and does what was his manner previously. In other words, most of us, at some point in life, either consciously or not, become satisfied with who we are and what we’ve become – and this can happen to us when we are eighty years old or even when we are just thirty years old - and we sort of plateau at that level. As such, we stop trying to improve ourselves and attain greater spiritual heights. We are thus content to live out our remaining days as a mere imitation of ourselves!

Of course, Judaism teaches that the whole purpose of life in Olam HaZeh (“This World”) is to grow closer to G-d through Torah study, mitzvah observance, the rectification of our middos (character traits) and overcoming the many challenges and tests that come our way. We should therefore strive to be in a constant upward motion, always seeking ways in which we can change for the better and become more spiritually sensitive and G-dlike. We are intended to plateau and stop growing only when we get to Olam HaBa (“The World to Come”), the place where we are meant to receive the reward for all the growing and changing that we are doing now.

How tragic would it be if we plateaued prematurely and spent the rest of the years of our lives staying on the same level with no spiritual growth, but instead just imitating and repeating what we have been doing Jewishly until now – and turning our lives that should be taken seriously into some kind of “monkey business”.

King Solomon, “the wisest of all men”, wrote in Proverbs 28:9:

“If one turns aside his ear from hearing the Torah, his prayer, too, will be [considered] an abomination.”

The Vilna Gaon explains that this verse refers specifically to one who attempts to share a Torah insight with his friend, but whose friend “turns aside his ear” and cuts him off prematurely, explaining that he heard that Torah insight already. In response, when this same friend attempts to pray his routine Daily Prayers, G-d will cut him off and say, “I heard those prayers already”, and his prayers will be turned away as if they were an abomination.

The point here is that the friend should have realized that in life G-d expects us to change and grow constantly and to become greater than we are presently, so that even if he already heard that particular insight a year ago – or even a day ago – he heard it on the level that he was on then, and now that he has hopefully grown somewhat, he might hear it on a whole new level.

The same is true with our seemingly repetitive Daily Prayers. While it is undoubtedly true that we are repeating the same words in our prayers to G-d every single day, we are also meant to grow spiritually each day as well, so that with each new day of growth, we will hopefully understand the prayers and connect to them on a whole new level.

http://www.torchweb.org/torah_detail.php?id=515

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