The verse says in Proverbs that the righteous man falls seven times and arises while the wicked man stumbles in calamity.

The verse could be understood that that the righteous man falling seven times is a prerequisite so to speak for his arising. Each and every fall he has is a building block to his eventual rise. The wicked person though stumbles and doesn't build off his failures or hardships. Everyone is faced with certain hardships during their life, they have ups and downs, but it is how we treat the downs and the falls, how we stand up and build ourselves from those falls, that distinguishes the righteous from the wicked.

There is a parable of a man who went into a tailor shop, he sees a beautiful material which the tailor takes down and begins cutting and slicing into different shapes and sizes. The man looks on in shock, why would the tailor take such a beautiful material and destroy it. He then watches as the tailor meticulously sews together the different pieces until he creates a beautiful jacket. Without cutting apart the material the jacket couldn't have been produced. We too feel sometimes like we are cut to pieces, faced with some challenge, test, failure etc. we need to remember that it is these difficulties which ultimately help form us into who we are. We just need to pick up the pieces and start sewing!

Shabbat Shalom,

Heath