Don’t Get Discouraged from Yeridos - A Tzadik Falls Plenty Times
The Medrash says that Yaakov threw the Malach to the ground, and the Malach got up, and Yaakov threw him down again; this went on all night. A Tzadik is always fighting with his Yetzer Hara, and he’s always going back and forth. The Tzadik falls plenty times also, as it says: שֶבַע יִפּוֹל צַדִּיק וָקָם (Mishlei 24:16) – a Tzadik falls seven times, and gets up! People get discouraged when they have Yeridos. They think that things must always go perfect, but this is not true.
If you realize that this is the normal: סֵדֶר הַדְבָרִים – way things work, then it’s much easier to deal with, and you don’t feel like something is wrong. We can also suggest that Yaakov’s long “all-night-struggle” with the Malach is a Siman for all of us. We need to be like Yaakov, not total Tzaddikim who never sin. We are successful if we always fight and continue our struggles with the Yetzer Hara. The main thing is to be a fighter!
