The Talking African Grey | Rabbi Binyomin Weinrib

Many years ago, there lived a king, who had an impressive palace. And in the palace, there were treasure houses filled with gold, silver, diamonds, and every kind of jewel that one could imagine. But inside of the king's throne room, in the innermost rooms of the palace, there lies the king's prized possession. Inside of a cage was an African Grey parrot that the king had imported specially from Africa, and came along with the parrot a special trainer, who went ahead and trained this parrot to be able to say phrases at the king's cue. And every morning when the king would wake up, he would give the signal to the parrot and the parrot would say: Good morning, Your Majesty. How did you sleep last night? Did you sleep okay? It would bring a tremendous joy and smile to the king's face, and he would say: Yes, my bird, I slept great last night. And every evening, as the king would go to sleep, the king would give the cue, he would give the signal to the parrot, and the parrot would, once again, say: Good evening, Your Majesty. I hope that tonight you have a great night's sleep. And this was the pride and the joy of the king. Once, the king had a simple villager, a simple old childhood friend, who came to visit him. And the king brings him in, shows him all of the treasure houses, shows him around the gold, the silver, the diamonds, shows him everything that he had. And then finally, he brings him into the throne room and he shows him his African Grey parrot, he shows him his beautiful parrot that's sitting there. And the king gives a signal to the parrot, and the parrot, on cue, says: Good morning, Your Majesty. How did you sleep last night? And he gives him the other cue, and the parrot goes out and says: Good evening, Your Majesty. I hope you sleep well. And the king is standing there, waiting to see how the villager, how his childhood friend is going to go ahead and react to this unbelievable wonder. And the villager is standing there, totally unimpressed. This is the most impressive thing that you own, more than the gold, the silver, the diamonds? An animal? He says: I think you're foolish. You spent tens of thousands of dollars on this simple parrot? He says: I'm a human. I'm capable of sitting here and talking and having conversations with you. I’m who you should be impressed by. You're impressed by a bird that can say the same sentences every morning and every night? The king looks at the villager and says: You're so foolish, you don't understand. Obviously, you're capable of having a conversation with me. You're a human. That's what you're meant to do. But a bird? Even if it could only say the same sentences every day, again and again, it's impressive, because it's a bird. That's not what it's naturally meant to do. Animals are not naturally meant to talk. Humans are meant to talk. Zogt the heiliger Kedushas Levi, the Berditchever Rav, When a person goes ahead and does a good deed, a person has something that's catching their attention and they look away, the Malachim see the Ribono shel Olam being impressed by this human and the Malachim say: Ribono shel Olam, really? You're impressed by this person that looked away and was able to go ahead and be Misgaber in the area of Shmiras Einayim? That's impressive? Ribono shel Olam, we've been sitting here for thousands of years, singing Your praises. We're the ones You should be impressed by, not the simple person who was capable of turning away when there's something tempting him to look. The Ribono shel Olam tells the Malachim, I'm not the foolish one. You're the foolish ones. You don't understand that for you to go ahead and to sing my praises the whole day, that's what you're capable of doing, that's what you're built to do, that’s what you're naturally supposed to be doing. But for a human, who's stuck inside of a Guf, for a Neshama, a חלק אלוה ממעל, which is inside of a Guf, to be able to overcome the natural temptations and to be able to look away when the Guf only wants to look, that's the most impressive things. Often we look at ourselves and say that what we're doing is small and insignificant, and it may look that way, relative to the Malachim, but that's not the way the Ribono shel Olam views it. The Ribono shel Olam looks at every small action that we do, and He recognizes that for us to go ahead and do that is breaking against our nature, breaking the Guf and fighting the natural temptation that we have to look. He says: This is what I'm impressed by. This is what goes in the innermost chambers of my palace, because this is what's really impressive to me.