Everything is just creating a path towards Hashem

EVERYTHING IS JUST MAKING A PATH TOWARDS HASHEM

Excerpt of a shiur given by Rav Eliezer Berland, shlita, after the Shacharit prayers on Wednesday, Parshat Pincus 5778

When a person merits to be a ‘desert’ [i.e. very lowly and humble, like the dust of the earth], and everyone tramples on him, and he accepts that with love – “In the desert, in the Arava” (Devarim 1:1).

Arava – this is the Dead Sea, until Eilat. This is called ‘Arava’, “Straighten in the Arava a new path to our Elokim”; “Praiseworthy is the man whose strength is in You, those who focus their hearts on upward paths.” (Tehillim 84:6)

BUT ALSO OUR DESCENTS, WHEN A PERSON GOES THROUGH A SETBACK, THIS IS ALSO A NEW PATH. HE’S CREATING A NEW PATH FOR HIMSELF. OUR SETBACKS AND [SPIRITUAL] DESCENTS ALSO INCLUDE BIZYONOT, BEING SHAMED AND HUMILIATED, FOR “SHAME BROKE MY HEART” (TEHILLIM 69:21).

The biggest bizyon is when a person falls [spiritually]. If a person can accept this bizyon with love… If, when he has questions like ‘why did I have to fall?!’ – if he accepts the bizyon with love, so a new path towards Hashem will also be created from this, from all the setbacks and failures in the whole world.

> Everything is just a path towards Hashem.