“And Yaakov had a dream and his dream there was a ladder standing on the ground and it’s top reached the heavens.”(Bereshit 28:12)
The Chofetz Chaim comments based in many commentators,that the ladder Yaakov saw in his dream symbolizes the situation of every person in the world. There are two actions a person performs on a ladder. Either he goes up from the bottom to the top, or else he goes down from the top to the bottom. Each day in a person’s life he faces new challenges, some harder and some easier. If he sees these challenges as growth opportunities, he will go up the ladder and in his spiritual level. If, however, the person doesn’t take the opportunity to grow, sadly he will descend spiritually and mentally.
There is no such thing as standing in one place. When the challenge comes you’ll either behave in an elevated manner and grow from the experience, or you will just go down.
Rabbi Yisroel Salanter used to say: “a person is like a bird. A bird has the ability to fly very high, but it must continuously move its wings.If he stops flapping its wings, it will fall.”
excerpts taken from “Growth Through Torah” by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin
www.livealittlehigher.com
