The Talking Tiger | Rabbi YY Jacobson

Rabbi Ephraim Wachsman shlit”a shared with me this powerful parable. There was once a fellow, he owned a zoo, and he simply could not afford to purchase a tiger. It was out of his budget. But you need a tiger. So what does he do? He hires a human being, gets dressed up like a tiger, goes into the cage, and his job is to walk as a tiger, live as a tiger, breathe as a tiger, roar as a tiger and function as a tiger. And he does it brilliantly. And the tourists and the visitors love it and the zoo is making money and everything is gevaldig. And there's a visitor, who enjoys it so much, and he keeps on coming constantly. He’s enjoying this tiger so much, who is showing off. And then, oy a broch. One day, one of the zoo attendants goes into the cage of the tiger to feed him. And the tiger, I guess it was desperate for some human company, says: Hey, how you doin’? Oy. Unbeknownst to the tiger, this frequent visitor was present and he overheard this conversation. And the man runs to the owner of the zoo. He says: You're a thief! You're a Ganav! You’re a Gazlan! You’re a liar! Shocked, he says: What happened? He says: I've been coming here every day, two years. That’s not a tiger, that’s a human being. He says: Prove it. He says: With my own ears, I heard this tiger speak. I heard this tiger say: Hey, how you doin’? He says: Aha! Two years the tiger didn't say a word. All he was doing was roaring. Once in two years he says a few words and you decide he’s a human being? How ludicrous. We smile because, of course, the man is right. If he was a real tiger, even once in two years, he couldn't say a few words. Even once in 30 years. The fact that once in two years you can speak like a human being means that you're always a human being. One of the greatest mistakes we make in life is we judge our essence not based on our best moments, but based on our worst moments or based on our average moments. The fact that so many other times I roar like a tiger, I eat like a tiger, I think like a tiger, I feel like a tiger, okay. But if once you can experience life as a human being, that is who you really, really are. Judge yourself not by your worst moments, judge yourself by your best moments. If once in two years or once a year, or once a month, or once a week, or once a day, you can experience the bliss of intimacy with Hashem, you can experience serenity, tranquility, authenticity, you can experience the frequency of love, of trust, of faith, of surrender, that is who you are. The fact that I don't always live up to it? Yes, I have blockages, I have wounds, I have things I have to deal with. But who are you? You're not a tiger, you’re a human being. If you would really be an animal, you wouldn't be capable of experiencing that experience ever. Remember always who you are in your essence, because then you know how you want to really live.