Q:
In Tanach it states, כי שבע יפול צדיק וקם – A righteous person will fall seven times and he’ll get up (Mishlei 24:16). Why does a tzaddik have to fall so many times?
A:
It states: שבע יפול צדיק וקם — Seven times a tzadik falls and he stands up. It means that in the end he remains standing.
Rav Nachman Bresolver in one of his seforim relates that when he began his career as an oived Hashem, it wasn’t only seven. Sometimes, a hundred times a day he fell down; but he wasn’t discouraged. Each time he rose again and fought back. And he said, “No, I’m going to remain standing.”
And that’s the career of all right people. They fall and they fall, but in the end they are going to conquer.
Now why should they fall? And the answer is because if you remain standing easily then you’re not really standing. Let’s say you’re able to set up a toy soldier on a place where there’s no wind. That doesn’t mean he’s standing. If anybody will pass by, then the wind that he creates will knock it down. Standing means its firm!
And therefore, for a tzaddik to know that he’s וקם – that he’s really standing, he has to fall and fall until finally he’s able to withstand all the ordeals and remain standing. That’s when you know you’re standing.
So let’s stay, if you’ll isolate yourself in a room and you’ll lock the doors and put shutters over the windows and have no contact with anybody in the world and you won’t talk loshon hara – it’s a big achievement, but it’s not big enough. It’s only when you’re in contact with mankind and you’re able to remain standing, then it counts.
And that’s why Hakodosh Boruch Hu gave man a wife because that’s the person he’ll be in contact with most. אעשה לו עזר כנגדו – and living with a wife, when he remains standing and she remains standing, then it’s a big achievement.
TAPE # 192
