Everything is just making a path towards Hashem
Excerpt of a shiur given by Rav Eliezer Berland, shlita, after the Shacharit prayers on Wednesday, Parshat Pincus 5778
When a person merits to be a ‘desert’ [i.e. very lowly and humble, like the dust of the earth], and everyone tramples on him, and he accepts that with love – “In the desert, in the Arava” (Devarim 1:1).
Arava – this is the Dead Sea, until Eilat. This is called ‘Arava’, “Straighten in the Arava a new path to our Elokim”; “Praiseworthy is the man whose strength is in You, those who focus their hearts on upward paths.” (Tehillim 84:6)
But also our descents, when a person goes through a setback, this is also a new path. He’s creating a new path for himself. Our setbacks and [spiritual] descents also include bizyonot, being shamed and humiliated, for “shame broke my heart” (Tehillim 69:21).
The biggest bizyon is when a person falls [spiritually]. If a person can accept this bizyon with love… If, when he has questions like ‘why did I have to fall?!’ – if he accepts the bizyon with love, so a new path towards Hashem will also be created from this, from all the setbacks and failures in the whole world.
Everything is just a path towards Hashem.