The Struggles We Share With the Gedolim

In a letter, Rav Hutner wrote that when we read the lives of gedolim, we often picture them as having been perfect from the start, with no struggles. This is a false picture. The difference between them and us is not that they never struggled or failed while we do. The difference is that they rose and went on, and grew stronger through hardship, while we give up. The struggles are exactly where we most resemble them. Who knows what battles the Chofetz Chaim fought before he mastered his speech? Rav Hutner also taught that Shlomo HaMelech’s words, that a tzaddik falls seven times and rises, mean that he rises through his failures. The falls themselves lift him. So when you meet failure, do not think you alone are lowly. Remember that the tzaddik also had a yetzer hora and overcame it.