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Progressive Failure


Based on letters and talks of the Rebbe, Rabbi M. M. Schneerson

There are two ways to ascend: You can step upward, leaving one foot in its place as the other moves ahead. Or you can crouch down and leap.

This is the true meaning of failure: Failure is not just a setback. Everything in life is a step forward, because everything has meaning.

So too, failure: It is the crouch before the jump, the break away from the past so that we can leap into the future.
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Based on letters and talks of the Rebbe, Rabbi M. M. Schneerson   More articles...  |   RSS Listing of Newest Articles by this Author

From the wisdom of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of righteous memory; words and condensation by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman. To order Rabbi Freeman’s book, Bringing Heaven Down to Earth, click here.

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Latest Comments:
Posted: Oct 9, 2011
Crouch down & leap
Freud called crouch down & leap the regression that precedes progression.
Posted By Ezra House, New York, 1

Posted: Oct 8, 2011
I''m reminded of a story
that the Baal Shem Tov once told about Yom Kippur ( I once heard a rabbi tell this story during Yom Kippur).

There was a poor man who was on his way to shul on a Friday erev (evening) when Yom Kippur was to begin, when a wheel on his wagon broke down, and he ran off the road into a ditch.

No matter how hard he tried, he and his horse could not get the wagon out of the ditch, and he ended up spending all of Yom Kippur in the ditch with no one to help pull him out.

At first he is despondent: "How will G-d include me for another year in the Book of Life if I am not there with the others for Yom Kippur? I have failed!".

He eventually decides though to make the best of his situation. He, in effect, being uneducated, with limited knowledge, holds his own Yom Kippur right there in the ditch, and simply does the best he can with what he knows.

They eventually find him the next evening and take him to feast: happy ending.

And things actually improved for him next year!
Posted By Thomas Karp, New Haven, Ct.

Posted: Oct 8, 2011
The meaning of success
Success is like an idol for so many people. It's, in effect, a 'replacement theology' for them.

They may say to themselves-'once I am successful everything will be alright', and that thought replaces their relationship with G-d.

What happens though if you are successful at something that is bad, or of the yetzer hara, or is harmful to other people?

There are many people who maybe successful at things that do not enrich the world; that are instead destructive; and the thing is that once they are successful at that particular thing, it is so hard for them to turn back from it.

Many people never consider teshuvah until everything else in their life fails. As long as they were successful at whatever it is that they were doing they remain pointed anywhere else but at G-d.

This is not to say that one cannot be successful and aspire to G-d.

For so many though it is one of the other.

I suppose the High holidays is a good time to reconsider what it means to be a success.
Posted By Thomas Karp, New Haven, Ct.

Posted: Oct 7, 2011
Progressive Failure
My goodness it is the first time I know my failure is not even bad! Truly the L-rd is good all the time, not just a saying, but truth He puts in the universe. That even we fail and fall He still brings us out! You all are just wonderful people who bring G-d's Word to us in such a special way. The Rebbe is so good!
Posted By Nancy Duong, Forest Hills , NY/USA

Posted: Sep 25, 2009
What I believe is, for me, every 'failure' is a backward motion in order to go forward.

Gentle as you go ...
Posted By Marlene Fair-Fischer, Vista, CA/USA

Posted: Mar 23, 2009
I don't get ot...
...and I usually do. Can someone help me out here?
Posted By HappyMinyan, Beverly Hills, Ca

Posted: Mar 23, 2009
progressive failure
And I still fail to understand what you mean, even though I'm a recovering addict. (or perhaps BECAUSE I am one) Are you saying it's better to just take that full leap out of your current reality or keep one foot in the past, just in case? Please explain--it's a great topic.
Posted By Anonymous

Posted: Mar 23, 2009
Progressive Failure
I felt very uncomfortable with this Thought for the day. When I first read it, I understood "failure" to be that leap into the future. I wondered about the "one foot in it's place as the other moves forward" and felt that this was an impossible way to ascend - or at least a very slow ascent!. I recalled a dream where I was climbing up and around in a spiral tower, trying to reach the summit. Finally becoming exhausted and not knowing if I was half way up or half way down, I decide to jump over the bannister. The outcome? I suffered a minor pain to my leg as I stood up and walked out the door into bright sunlight! This dream had a very profound effect on my life - essentially tearing me out of my current situation, which was very bad - and propelling me into a bright, new future from which I have never looked back! I believe that to "crouch down and jump" is about trusting your own judgement and believing in yourself and is the very essence of what one needs to propel oneself forward!
Posted By Lesley Spiegel, Kelowna, BC

Posted: Mar 22, 2009
Re: what does this mean?
When a person is always successful, so he only moves forward step by step. Which really means that he remains always within the same dimension of reality as before.

When he fails, however, he is then able to look back and say, "This is not where I should be!" Then he tears himself out of his pattern and leaps into a whole new dimension of life.

Anyone who has worked with an addict in recovery has seen this in very practical terms. But it is accessible to all of us--we all have our addictions.
Posted By Tzvi Freeman, Thornhill, Ontario

Posted: Mar 22, 2009
what does this mean?
Like the previous commenter, I would like to understand what is meant by this article.

Thank you,
Posted By Liora, Fairfield, USA



 


Yom Kippur Meditations
G-d's Fishing Net
Dance with the Other
Self-Pity
Time Machine
The Fair Maiden's Hero
Progressive Failure
Kosher Yearnings
Bouncing Up
Delights
Our Voice
Even Better
Time Travel

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