The Seesaw of Life: Discovering Resilience and Fortitude Through Yaakov's Ladder

Life is like a ride on a seesaw. For some days you're at the very top of the world. A seesaw has swung in your direction Business, easy friends, close and loving Family. The relationships are strong and heartfelt. Tell your study, well, give it to me because I want more. But then, before you know it, people will change the analogy here. For the dark souls, the pendulum swings in the other direction To have you out in the cold, where life went from this euphoric epic to this melancholic moment faster than you can even blink. You don't know why you're even in the Pyrnossa that you're in. You can't make a buck, you can't understand one word of the Chumish. You feel distant, despondent and a darkness. But then I realized that this is unique and widespread to all humans. It's part of the human DNA. It's called good days and bad days and we all got them. And then I felt empowered when I saw the Holy Run as the Alishar brings say that this is a Torah fact as well, something that's a fact in DNA. It's part of life. There are Yeme Ha'ava days of love good days and Yeme Ha's sin at dark times. And following this analogy, from the enduring metaphor that is Yaakov's ladder, as he dreamt a dream and the ladder was from the ground up to the skies, into the heavens. This is to be the metaphor of how to climb up to Torah and Jewish greatness, rung by rung, step by step, level by level. I saw it in a different way this time, because the Avodah, our job perhaps in the dark times, may not be to climb to the next level. It may not be practical or doable, but if God forbid, we fall off during our dark times that we have to climb up from the very beginning in rung, level one. But if we can at least hold on to that rung, not necessarily climb to the next step, but just stand there while the winds of darkness blow around you in the storms of life, but you steady your grip and you don't fall, even if no progress has been made. You get to continue climbing when the pendulum swings back and it always does to the good days, from the same spot that you were. You have already had tremendous success. So we pray for the good days. We hope that the dark times are short lived, we pray that the universe aligns itself in everyday, bright and sunny. But our Avodah and our marching orders are clear To climb Yaakov's ladder during the good days, you blitz the system and you do as much as you can. When the dark times come and the pendulum swings back and the seesaw turns, well then, just hold on tight, because as long as you continue to stay on that rung, you get to continue climbing from that spot when the good times return.