The Midrash tells a fable about a man who was walking along the road and decided to sit down, eat something, and relax. As he sat, he saw two birds fighting. One bird pecked the other, killing it. Then, the live bird took some pieces of grass lying on the ground, and dropped them on the dead bird. In an instant, the dead bird came back to life. They both flew away.
The man who witnessed this unusual scene was astonished. The plant in front of him had the power to revive the dead! He grabbed some of it and headed off, so he could use it to restore life.
Sometime later, he saw a lion lying lifeless on a rock. He took the grass in his hand and sprinkled it on the lion. Sure enough, the lion came back to life – and immediately proceeded to devour the man who had revived it…
What is the lesson of this Midrash? What is this parable meant to teach us?
Rav Yaakov Galinsky explained that this is the story of so many of us.
Like the man in the story, most people, at one point or another, discover that they have some “superpower,” some special talent, some gift, some kind of outstanding potential. And, like the man, they go around looking for an opportunity to use our special power.
Unfortunately, this man used his power for the wrong purpose. He could have revived his parents, or the great tzadikim. Instead, he used it to revive a dead lion – which ended up destroying himself. Similarly, so many people use their power for the wrong purpose, and end up destroying themselves, wasting the precious time they are given here in the world.
A football fan with great leadership skills, a great personality, and outstanding organizational talent puts together a fantasy football team. For the next several months, he and his peers spend hundreds of hours watching and discussing football. This fellow is great at what he does – but he uses it for the wrong purpose.
We all have some “superpower.” Everyone is bright, intelligent and talented in some way. But are we using our power the right way? Are we bringing “life” to those who really need it? Or are we wasting our talents on a dead lion?
This is ultimately, what this time of year is all about. We are to take stock of ourselves, to determine which “superpower” we have been given, and to ask ourselves if we are using it the right way, to excel and to make the greatest contribution that we can make.
Best-selling author Jim Collins wrote a book entitled Good to Great, in which he studies a number of “good” companies that became “great” companies; companies that did ok, and then eventually took off and became wildly successful. In his introduction, Collins poses the question of why this is rare. Usually, businesses either fail, do ok, or take off. It is uncommon to find companies that do ok for many years before becoming great.
The reason, Collins determined, is because “good is the enemy of great.” If someone is a good parent, a good employee, a good businessman, or good at anything else he does, he does not feel motivated to push himself further to become great. It is precisely because a business is doing well that it does not become great. There is no motivation to achieve more.
Rosh Hashanah is the anniversary of the creation of man, a time when we reflect on the purpose for which we are here. We were not brought to the world to be “ok.” We weren’t given a superpower so we can revive dead lions. We are here to be great, to achieve, to excel, to accomplish the most we can.
Let us use this period of introspection and teshuvah to identify our superpower, to see which potential has not yet been used to its fullest, and make a commitment to never settle for “ok,” but to instead strive for greatness in every area of our lives.