What does “a righteous person falls seven times and rises” mean?
By Rabbi Shalom Landau.
Rabbi Landau teaches that King Solomon’s verse, “Ki sheva yipol tzaddik vakam,” defines a righteous person by his getting up, not by his never falling. “Seven fails, seven get-ups. Still righteous.”
The verse does not say the righteous person stopped being righteous after the first fall, or the fifth. He falls seven times and is still called a tzaddik. “The failing never defined him, the getting up did.”
Rabbi Landau notes that this was said some three thousand years ago, and it answers a very modern fear: that a collapse is a verdict on who you are. According to the verse, the fall is part of the story of a righteous person. What would make it a failure is not rising again.
Related concepts: The struggle is the life · Growth
In A Soul at Peace: Seven Times He Falls, and Rises
Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level
Surface claim
The verse counts seven falls and seven risings, and the person is still righteous.
Fear, vulnerability, or tension
After a fall, a person fears it has proven he is broken. In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that the verse does not apologize for the fall; it shows the fall as part of the path of the righteous.
Deepest human truth
The failing never defined him; the getting up did.
More questions from this teaching
More answers: Boundaries, Healing, and Emotional Resilience · All questions · Questions about Rabbi Landau and Rivnitz