"Why don’t you eat this good food" the visiting bear (pretending to be a monkey) asked him. The bear replied, "I'll tell you the truth. I'm not really a bear. I'm a monkey. I didn’t find enough food to eat in the forest, so I applied to be a monkey in the zoo. The manager told me that they didn’t need a new monkey, but they were in need of a bear. An old bear died a few weeks before, and they didn’t yet find any animal to take his place. I told the manager that I don’t know how to be a bear, but the manager told me that I shouldn’t worry. They would send me to a school in the zoo that will teach me how to be a bear. And that's how I ended up being here. But I don’t eat everything they give me, because I'm really a monkey and I need only a third of what bears eat. Besides, they feed us fish, berries, and nuts, and I am really yearning for good old bananas and peanuts..."
The visiting bear replied that he has a similar story, only the opposite. He explained that he is really a bear, pretending to be a monkey. They both realized how impractical and foolish their situation was. Here was a bear, working hard pretending to be a monkey, and he was unsatisfied with his meals. In another cage there's a monkey living among bears, working hard to act like a bear, and he was also unsatisfied with the meals. Wouldn’t it be better if they just exchanged places?
They went to the zoo manager and told them their wonderful plan. The zoo manager didn’t want to hear about it. He said, "Go back to your places, and don’t think of changing them. You were hired to be a bear, and you were hired to be a monkey, and that agreement remains, regardless of how impractical it is."
The bear and the monkey told him, "You're speaking like a dumb donkey." The zoo manager responded, "Actually, I am a donkey. Years ago, I didn’t find enough food to eat, so I applied to be a donkey in the zoo. The heads of the zoo told me that they have enough donkeys, and they didn’t need new ones, but they were looking to hire a zoo keeper. The old zoo keeper had passed away a few weeks before, and they hadn't yet found a replacement. They said I could take that position. I told them that I don’t know anything about being a keeper, but they said, 'That's not a problem. We have a school. You will learn how to be a keeper.' And I've been working ever since."
This story reminds us how foolish it is when people try to play the role of someone else, and they don’t want to fill the role for which they were created. Be happy with the lot Hashem gave you, and then you will succeed in all your spiritual and material pursuits. Don’t lose everything that was giving to you by trying to take the place of others.
Reprinted from the 2020 Parshas Beshalach email of Rabbi Elimelech Biderman’s Torah Wellsprings.
