Last week we returned from a trip to South Africa, the country where I grew up. I always enjoy spending time there, and for my kids who are growing up in the Manhattan city life, going back to nature was a blessing and a breath of fresh air.
While there, we went on a day trip to the famous monkey sanctuary just outside of Johannesburg, where hundreds of monkeys roam freely, swinging on ropes, living their life, and tourists can walk right through and take pictures.
My kids thoroughly enjoyed this thrilling experience, but at the same time they were a little scared. I walked right up to one of the monkeys who the park had nicknamed "Zaza." Zaza examined me, and without blinking she jumped right onto my head! Then she stretched her hand down into my shirt pocket to see what was in there. When she realized it was empty, she reached down into my pant pocket and tried again. Also empty. I felt her going for my back pocket, and since that's where I keep my credit cards and keys, I wasn't going to take any chances! I jumped and Zaza flew off.
"How did she know to do that?" I asked our guide. "She knew exactly where my pockets were, and she knew to look in them."
"Zaza sees people every day," he explained. "She watches them carefully and notices they are always putting their hands into their pockets to remove items, so she knows where everything is. As the saying goes, "Monkey see, monkey do,"—she is an expert mimic!"
The Baal Shem Tov teaches us that from everything in life we need to learn a lesson.
Every single one of us has a soul which is a part of G-d, and before it descended into our body it was enjoying Divine delicacies and spirituality. Our souls felt closer to G-d surrounded and nurtured by the beautiful and blissful Divine palace.
But then the soul descends into this universe to live inside the body. The soul then quickly forgets about its royal blood and starts to mimic its new physical world. We start living our lives mimicking and copying everything we see. We start to enjoy the physical pleasures of this world, forgetting that we are children of G-d. And that is why Rosh Hashanah comes around.
We are only days away from Rosh Hashanah, when we will blow the shofar, once more crowning G-d as our King. On Rosh Hashana we will remind ourselves of our Divine heritage, that we are children of G-d, that we have strayed too far this past year, mimicking many of the things we've seen in the world around us.
We know we are special, of Divine origin. Let's return to our true selves this Rosh Hashanah. This Saturday night we begin to recite the selichot prayers which mark the beginning of the High Holiday season.
All year round we are like mimicking monkeys. We act like those around us. We copy everything we see. We become deeply entrenched in the physical world. But when Rosh Hashanah comes around, it is time to return to our roots.