Falling in Order to Rise

Falling

There are many searching questions about God. It is only fitting and proper that this should be so. Indeed, such questions enhance the greatness of God and show His exaltedness. God is so great and exalted that He is beyond our ability to understand Him. It is obviously impossible for us to understand His ways with our limited human intelligence. Inevitably there will be things that baffle us, and it is only fitting that that should be so. If God’s ways were in accordance with the demands of our meager understanding, there would be no difference between His understanding and ours, God forbid.

(Likutey Moharan II, 52)

Falling in Order to Rise

The major theme of Ayeh? is what to do when we fall. Many times, we feel low and far from God. Then we have to search for God. Reb Noson takes up this theme in the following extract from Likutey Halakhot, his eight-volume work discussing the laws of the Shulchan Arukh in light of Rebbe Nachman’s teachings. This excerpt is from Choshen Mishpat, Hilkhot Gevi’at Chov Mihayetomim 3. Rebbe Nachman taught that the fall comes for the very purpose of helping us to rise up (see above, p. 21). Indeed, spiritual progress is impossible without falling. Reb Noson explains why this is so: The fall forces us to search Ayeh?—“Where is the place of His glory?” And the level of Ayeh?—the very source of the Creation—is the source of the new energies we need in order to rise up.

The material demands on our lives necessarily produce times when we are far from God’s glory. Reb Noson shows us how to overcome the distance by giving the Torah, the revealed glory of God, pride of place in our lives. The Torah provides us with a firm base on which to fight the challenges of life and find God wherever we are.

Reb Noson then widens the discussion from the path of the individual to the journey of the Jewish People from exile to redemption. In the light of Ayeh? we see that exile is far from a purposeless episode. Rather, it is the necessary preparation for an ascent to the highest level of spirituality. This is what we await now, as we prepare for the coming of Mashiach.

Reb Noson writes:

The teaching of Ayeh? is relevant to people on all different levels, especially those who have become detached from religion. If you have fallen down badly, there is really no other way to give yourself new life. You must search for God where you are, in your actual situation, there in the place you have fallen to. This is how you can climb out of your low and rise way above.

However, Ayeh? also applies to those who have already attained a high degree of spirituality. All people need to follow this teaching, because everyone must constantly move forward from level to level; it is no good to stand still. When the time comes to progress from one level to the next, you must necessarily experience a fall before you can rise up. The moment you actually fall, you are far from God. His glory becomes concealed from you. This is when you have to search Ayeh?—“Where is the place of His glory?” Only by searching can you rise and attain the higher level.

It is only possible to move from level to level through Ayeh?, which is the highest Utterance, the Hidden Utterance of Bereshit, from which all Ten Utterances derive. The reason is that when you move from one level to the next, in effect you become a new person with new spiritual powers. All your energies are renewed when you leave your previous level and enter the next. The only way to renew yourself and go forward is by first going back. You have to go back to the ultimate root—which is Ayeh?, the root of all Ten Utterances through which the world was created. As such, Ayeh? contains all the worlds, all the souls, and all the levels in the world. This explains why there has to be a fall before you can move forward. Before you can rise, you must first go back and attach yourself to the ultimate root of Ayeh?, which contains all the levels in the world. Only here is it possible to receive the new spiritual energies needed to rise to your new level. There has to be a fall because it is through falling that you are spurred into searching Ayeh? When you search properly, you can rise to the ultimate heights of Ayeh?, the root of all, and then you can draw from there the new life and energy you need to achieve the higher level.

Book Ayeh? edited by BRI.

Authorized by BRI to Journal Mitzvah.