Many are familiar with Dr. Seuss’ “Yertle the Turtle” (a parable about dictators and those who abuse others in their pursuit of power) so I won’t repeat the whole story. It’s easy to find, look it up and read it.
What I’d like to share is an inverse message for Rosh Hashanah. In Seuss’ story, Yertle is a bad king. He is greedy, power-hungry and oblivious to the needs and pains of his subjects. His undoing is a burp by a little plain turtle named Mack, who was at the way bottom of Yertle’s stack. On the contrary, G-d is a good King, who seeks what’s best for us.
That’s the great (albeit indirect) Rosh Hashanah message: Rabbi Joseph Ber Solveitchik obm (former Rosh Yeshiva at YU, teacher and mentor to many Rabbis, and visionary for the Modern Orthodox movement) recalls his Chabad melamed (teacher) telling him as a child: Who crowns G-d as King on Rosh Hashanah? Is it the Rabbis and scholars? the rich merchants? No! It’s Yankel the Peddler, Shimon the Shoemaker, Isaac the Porter… or in the words of Dr. Seuss: It’s plain little Mack!
Us “Macks” need to step up to our role, and not underestimate our significance and potential. We are needed and each of us makes a huge difference!