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By Prof. Shimon Silman

לזכות נעטל בת אדל תי’ לרפואה שלימה ולזכות בתנו שבע חי’ מושקא בת נעטל תי’ לרפואה שלימה בדרך נס—”ועל נסיך שבכל יום עמנו,” והקב”ה כל יכול

What could be worse than failure—no matter what it is that one is attempting? I think that one can only write such an article if he’s been there, and had done that, and came back from there.

My Story

So, let me start with my story. My field is mathematics, generally considered one of the most difficult areas (think: abstract “rocket science”). So naturally, in high school I hated math and stayed away from it as much as possible. But in my last year I became enthralled with physics and went on to major in it at the University of Minnesota. I remember studying the catalog of program descriptions at the U of MN Institute of Technology, trying to figure out how I could get through the physics program with a minimum of mathematics.

But during a casual discussion with a physics lab instructor, I realized that the logic behind physics was mathematics, so my focus immediately shifted. When I went to the Technion in Haifa for my 3^rd year of college in 1970, I switched to math as my major. I remember a discussion I had with another American student who was studying engineering. He asked me why I was majoring in something as difficult as mathematics. I thought for a moment and then said, “It’s part of the impossible struggle that one must take on.” (I was surprised at myself; I had no idea why I said that. But I never forgot it…shades of things to come…)

I did very well in math and was accepted at the best universities for graduate school, including Cornell and the university of Chicago. But they costed a lot of money, which my family didn’t have, so I stayed in Minnesota and went to grad school there. They gave me a job as a Teaching Assistant.

Our Yechidus

Then in 1973 I got married and I needed more money. I considered taking on an additional job. At this time my wife and I had Yechidus with the Rebbe MHM…The first thing he asked me was, “What is your profession.” So it was set. From then on, I knew that my profession was math, but as I advanced in it, it became harder and harder (i.e. more and more of the impossible struggle). Meanwhile, over the years, I got several brachos from the Rebbe MHM on it. (In fact, sometimes I would turn away from math and look for things to do in Limudei Kodesh. When I would write to the Rebbe MHM for a bracha on them, I would not get an answer. When a new path in math would open up and I would write for a bracha, I would get an answer.)

Fear of Failure

Even a tzaddik is not free from failure. Recall the famous posuk, “Seven times the Tzaddik will fall [fail—the words are related] and then rise up.” (Mishlei 24:16)

Fear of failure is the most common cause of procrastination. Let’s talk about this for a moment. Chazal say that כל התחלות קשות—“all beginnings are difficult.” One reason for this if the fear of failure, being afraid to take even one step into it. But this itself is a solution: Take the first step. That’s all—just the first step.

I once read a story about this. There is a Chabad weekly publication where some personality tells of their involvement with the Rebbe MHM. In one story, a Jewish woman, not from the Chabad community, was living in Crown Heights in the 1950s. Her daughter was in high school and had to take the state Regents Exam in (some area of) history. There was this big review book to read. (I remember those books.) The girl wouldn’t study…she couldn’t study. Her mother was very worried. She went to the Rebbe MHM for advice (in those days it was a lot easier to get in.) The Rebbe MHM said to send him the girl and he would talk to her.

When the girl came to the Rebbe MHM, he said to her, “I’m not telling you to read the whole book. Just read one paragraph. Then read another. And then another…” Well, the woman telling the story was that girl, and at the time she was telling it she was a professor in that field of history!

The Rebbe MHM was telling her to take the first step, then proceed slowly, one step at a time. From what I have seen, this is the most useful advice given, sometimes said in varying terminology suited to various fields.

For example, I heard a former CIA officer talking about this. He said that in the CIA, the most successful approach is to proceed with “momentum.” For someone who is afraid or hesitant, they tell him to start out doing “small” acts that produce small amounts of momentum. Then go from there…

As I mentioned before, I’ve been there…I have been frozen by such fears. I have found various parts of math to be an “impossible struggle” and I had trouble even getting started. One math professor, who speaks a lot about these things, suggested to sit down and read the topic for just 10 minutes and then stop and take a break. Then see if you want to go back to it. I have found this to be amazingly useful, and I think the same advice would work for someone who has to learn—להבדיל—a difficult Tosafos or the Rogatchover on the Rambam.

One of the most dramatic examples of this is the story in the Midrash about Rabbi Chaninah ben Dosa. One time he saw all the people in his town bringing their animals to the Beis HaMikdash for sacrifices and he felt bad because he was poor and had no animals to bring. Then, in a desolate area, he found a beautiful stone. He thought that this would be a great gift to bring to the Beis HaMikdash. So he cleaned it up and polished it, but then realized that it was way to heavy for him to carry to the Beis HaMikdash. He didn’t know what to do. So Hashem sent a group of angels that appeared to him as laborers. As they were passing by, he called to them and asked them to carry it to the Beis HaMikdash. They agreed on a price but then they said to him that they would only do it on one condition. ‘You have to put your hand in too, to help us (בלבד שתתן בו יד) .” Rabbi Chanina agreed. So, they all lifted the stone and, instantly, Rabbi Chanina found himself standing with the stone outside the Beis HaMikdash. The “workers” had disappeared. Hashem made a miracle for him, but he had to take this one small step—to put his hand in also.

The same thing happened with Moshe Rabbeinu. When Hashem told him to count the Levites (beginning of Parshas Tzav) from the age of 30 days, Moshe Rabbeinu said to Hashem, “How can I enter their tents where the mothers are nursing their babies to count how many Levite babies there are?” Hashem said back to him, “You do your part and I’ll do mine (עשה אתה שלך ואני אעשה שלי).” So, Moshe Rabbeinu went to the tents of the Levites and, as he stood outside tent, a heavenly voice (bas kol) announced how many Levite babies there were in the tent. He had to take the first step.

So, when we are afraid of failure, we just have to take the first step—sometimes a very small step. Then Hashem takes over from there and helps us with the rest—sometimes miraculously.

And even if we don’t reach our goal, we should not be afraid to start. Remember the Mishneh in Pirkei Avos: “It is not incumbent upon you to finish the work, but you are not free to just do nothing.”

Failure—the Beginning of the Ascent

Failure may actually be a necessary initial step of a major success. This is why a Tzadik falls 7 times. In order to ascend to the next level, he has to descend, recalculate and rebuild.

So, let’s recalculate. We need some new terminology. “Failure” has too many negative connotations…it sounds so bad. Nobody wants to fail.

Let’s be a little more abstract. Let’s call it a “descent” instead of a “failure.” So a student might say, ”I didn’t fail the exam; I just got a low grade.” Once we got a report from the yeshiva on one of my sons. It said he got a 70 on the recent test. We confronted him on it and asked him how come he got such a low grade? He said back, “What do you mean? This grade means that I knew 70% of the material…that’s pretty good!” So, a failure is just a low grade, a descent.

Chazal say that a descent may be necessary for an ascent (ירידה צורך עלי’). Similarly, the Gemara says that, “A person does not fully understand statements of the Torah unless he stumbles in them.”

What if I take my first step and I fail? I take another step and I fail again. And the same may happen with several more steps. A famous example of this is the invention of the light bulb by Thomas Edison. He is said to have failed thousands of times, testing different materials that didn’t work etc. When asked how he felt about failing over a thousand times he said, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. Each time I learned something new about a way that won’t work.” He said that the light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps, rather than a failure. As one motivational speaker (Denzel Washington) said, “Your best teacher is your last mistake.”

A modern example is the invention of the X-ray laser. Everyone is familiar with the laser. It is a highly focused beam of light that can be used as something as innocent as a pointer, to a tool that can cut strong materials, to a military weapon. In the days of Ronald Reagan, when he was proposing a defensive system, affectionately known as “Star Wars,” one of the projects proposed was to develop an X-ray laser for military purposes. It was financed by a Defense Department division known as DARPA. But the project repeatedly failed and finally DARPA stopped funding it.

But the research didn’t stop. It was continued by the famous Lawrence Livermore laboratory in California. Livermore, a military research lab, had already succeeded with many nuclear projects. But it failed again and again at Livermore also.

Then, a young researcher working on his dissertation at Livermore came up with an interesting idea. He suggested that they should pick a scheme assuming it would fail, but try to learn something from it. They did that and it worked! The X-ray laser was developed and is now being used to study certain molecules.

We see this even in the area of sports. Tom Brady, the famous athlete, said recently on Fox News, “I learned a lot of things through failing that a lot of guys didn’t learn through high school and college because they were the best athletes.” They were already good athletes so they didn’t have the advantage of learning the lessons that Brady did from his initial failure.

Once again, we see that a descent, a failure, necessarily preceded an ascent. We have to remove the previous structure or the previous mentality before a new structure or mentality can be introduced. So, the descent can be considered the trigger, or even the initial stage of, the ascent.

Apparently, this is happening with President Trump. In his first term there was his ascent to the presidency. He did many good things, especially for Israel, like the Abraham Accords and moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Then there was a descent of four years which included many legal attempts by the Democrats to imprison him and two assassination attempts. But now we see in the current ascent, that he benefitted and learned from these occurences.

Courage and Trust

Sometimes, the entire issue of Failure can be avoided, and one just forges ahead with courage and trust in Hashem, in accordance with the Chassidic saying, לכתחילה אריבער—“Go for the top at the outset” (or, “over the top”).

This is expressed by the verse: “Reveal what you need to Hashem, trust Him, but in no one else, because He will do it and complete everything.” (Tehillim 37:5, following the commentary of the Radak.)

A dramatic example of this is when the Jew has to go to war. As Rambam describes it, first the Kohein arises and announces that anyone who is afraid of battle can go home…But then, once they go out to the war one is supposed to forget everything and everybody and forge ahead with courage and trust in Hashem. (He can’t go back any more.) Hashem will make him succeed and give him and his family many brachos.

Dr. Yakov Hanoka was a physics student at Penn State University when he came to Chabad. He was so enthralled with Chassidus and the Chabad life style that he didn’t want to go back. He stayed in the Chabad community for some time. At one point the Rebbe MHM told him that he had to go back and complete the doctorate in physics. Hanoka said that he was so happy being where he was, with Chabad, and he didn’t want to go back. Then the Rebbe MHM said to him, “You have to have the courage to complete the Ph.D.” He went back, completed the degree and became a well-known Chabad physicist.

From Creation to Moshiach

The creation of the world itself was preceded by a descent, as we will explain. But the world was created for a purpose, as the Talmud says, “The world was created only for Moshiach”—for the complete service of Hashem that Moshiach will bring about in the world. Recall that in the second verse of the Torah, before the creation of all the various creations that followed, it says, “And the spirit of Hashem hovered above the waters,” which the Medrash explains to mean, “This is the spirit of Melech HaMoshiach.”

So, in what sense was the creation of the world preceded by a descent?

All the Ma’amorim for the 10^th of Shevat, the yartzeit of the Previous Rebbe, start by saying that the creation of the Universe was a descent. The revelation from Hashem descended from above the spiritual worlds down through the higher spiritual worlds, through the lower spiritual worlds and finally to this physical world where Adam was created. Initially Hashem’s main presence (shechina) was down here on earth.

Then failure occurred. Adam sinned by eating from the tree of knowledge. That and several subsequent sins during the first several generations caused Hashem’s presence to remove itself from this world, until seven Tzadikim in the following generations—culminating in Moshe Rabbeinu’s construction of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) gradually brought the shechina back to earth.

Listen to how the Rebbe MHM says this in a 10 Shevat Ma’amar:

Just like the descent in the worlds in general was necessary for the [subsequent] elevation, that the descent of the G-dly light to create and give life to the creations of the lower worlds (בי”ע) down to the creations of this lower physical world—it’s all for the ascent which came because of it, the same applies to the descent that occurs in the physical world itself: The descent which took place through the sin of eating from the Tree of Knowledge and the subsequent undesirable events—it’s all for the purpose of the ascent. This was so that the appearance of the presence of G-d now—after it departed—would be higher than the initial presence of Hashem here on earth, that there was at the beginning of creation. (Kuntres 10 Shevat, 5750, sec. 1)

In the footnotes, the Rebbe MHM explains that this was all part of Hashem’s plan—to have an initial descent resulting in an ascent.

So, this is built into the structure of the world. Every ascent must be preceded by a descent—a failure.

The coming of Moshiach and the arrival of the Geulah, the purpose for which the world was created, is also an ascent preceded by a descent—a 2,000 year descent.

There is a famous Medrash that says: “The lion [king of Bavel] arose in the Mazal of the lion [month of Av] and destroyed Ariel [the 1^st Beis HaMikdosh] so that the lion [Moshiach] should come in the Mazal of the lion and build Ariel [the 3^rd Beis HaMikdosh],” which will be much greater than the 1^st Beis HaMikdosh. In fact, the 3^rd Beis HaMikdosh will be eternal.

This explains the Golus (exile): The 1^st Beis HaMikdosh, which was finite, had to be removed, and the Jewish people had to be restructured and refined, to attain—ascend to—the 3^rd Beis HaMikdosh which will be infinitely greater than the first one.

The Rebbe MHM has said that “the time of your redemption has arrived” and that we are currently in the Era of Moshiach, so the time has come for us to ascend.

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