What does “the greater the person, the greater his struggle” mean?
By Rabbi Shalom Landau.
Rabbi Landau teaches from the words of Chazal: “Kol hagadol mechaveiro, yitzro gadol mimenu,” the greater a person is, the greater his struggles. “That’s his test.”
In A Soul at Peace, he writes that this saying does not mean great people simply suffer more. It means the size of your tests measures your greatness. Hashem aims every test with precision and gives each person the opponent that matches his level.
So greatness never comes from avoiding problems, he teaches. The giants in life looked for bigger problems and walked into the storms. “Your life’s ceiling,” as he puts it, is set by the problems you are too scared to face.
Related concepts: The struggle is the life · Growth
In A Soul at Peace: The Greater the Person, the Greater the Battle
Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level
Surface claim
The size of a person’s struggle reflects the size of the person.
Fear, vulnerability, or tension
Facing a great test can feel like punishment. Rabbi Landau writes that it is not; it is how things are built.
Deepest human truth
In the book Rabbi Landau writes that the ceiling of your life is set by the size of the battles you are willing to fight.
More questions from this teaching
More answers: Purpose, Character, and Masculine Leadership · All questions · Questions about Rabbi Landau and Rivnitz