Revered teacher Isaac Huntner once wrote a letter to a disciple who had been discouraged by his repeated failure to master his bible studies:
A failing many of us suffer is that when we focus on the high attainments of great people, we discuss how they are complete in this or that area while omitting mention of the inner struggles that had previously raged within them. A listener would get the impression that these individuals sprang from the hand of their creator in a state of perfection...
The result of this feeling is that when an ambitious young man of spirit and enthusiasm meets obstacles, falls, and slumps, he imagines himself as unworthy of being "planted in the house of God" Psalm 92:13...
Know, however, my dear friend, that your soul is rooted not in the tranquility of the good inclination, but in the battle of the good inclination..."Lose a battle and win the war" applies. Certainly, you have stumbled and will stumble again, and in many battles, you will fall lame. I promise you, though, that after those losing campaigns you will emerge from the war with laurels of victory on your head...
The wisest of men said, "A righteous man falls seven times, but rises again." Proverbs 24:16. Fools believe the intent of this verse is to teach us that the righteous man falls seven times and, despite this, he rises. But the knowledgeable are aware that the essence of the righteous man's rising again is because of his seven falls.
Greatness cannot be achieved without failure.
