In Parashah Balak after Bilam tried to curse the Jews with no success, he realized that the only way to get to them was if they themselves fell into idol worship and depravity. So Balak sent beautiful women from Moab to entice the men to fall. This resulted in 24,000 deaths of the finest men of the Jewish people.
How could this happen? They had been already forty years in the desert and one step into entering the Promised Land, how could they fall so low if they were in such a high spiritual level?
The root of the sin was that they became comfortable and proud. Once they became haughty, their guard came down. When we think we have achieved our place and get comfortable, the “Yetzer Hara” (our evil inclination) gets working to take us to a higher place, so it entices us to go in the wrong direction. Although it seems it is there to fool us in reality it is there to give us an opportunity of growth.
Man’s service of G-d is analogous to climbing a mountain. When a person climbs a mountain he cannot pause in the middle and stand in one place, for sure he will slip and fall. Instead he must continue his climb relentlessly.
In spiritual matters it is the same. A person should never stop growing and he should never get comfortable, for ceasing to climb higher in holiness will eventually make him fall.
this is why we should always strive to live a little higher!
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