There is a whole Torah behind the art of falling.
We always say that falling down is the only way we learn in life, but is that all there is to it?
As we welcome Sefer Bamidar, we are about to learn about some of the greatest people: Moshe, Aharon, Miriam, the spies, Korach… tremendous people whose shortcomings are recorded.
The Ishbitser points out an incredibly important foundation, upon which much of the book of Bamidbar is based on. If we can understand this foundation, we can understand so much more about ourselves and this journey that we are on- the “Sefer Torah” of our own lives.
One of the ways in which Sefer Bamidbar differs from the other books in the Torah is that there is movement, and a lot of it. We finally have a direction- we are heading toward the ultimate gift, Eretz Yisrael.
R’ Shlomo Carlebach a’h once said that the closer you are to where you are supposed to be, the more mistakes you are going to make.
If, when a person falls, all they think while falling is that it’s okay to fall… mazal tov, but what happens after that? You just keep on falling.
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov teaches that essentially, a person must learn how to do three things in this world: one must learn how to walk, one must learn how to fall, and one must, ultimately, learn how to get back up.
The book of Bamidbar is filled with mistakes, mistakes that were done by great people who fell. But even with all of our mistakes, we learned how to get up and make it to the Holy Land.
Essentially nothing has changed.
We are still walking through this desert of life. Some of us are already physically ‘here’ in Eretz Yisrael, and some of us not yet. One thing is for sure though, we still have big people making mistakes. The ‘big’ person may be you or me. If our hearts and souls are aware that while we are falling, we know we are going to get up and, even more so, while we get up we know why we’re getting up, then all of our mistakes and shortcomings become our greatest Rebbes and teachers.
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