Finding Value In Our Mistakes

When you are on a spiritual journey, it is easy to look back on your past mistakes and resurrect old feelings of guilt for the decisions you made at an earlier stage of development. Some invest significant time overthinking how they might have acted differently today if given the same situation.

If we stay here too long, this can be destructive, leading to disheartenment, other unproductive emotions, and a self-defeatest perspective.

"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"

The world has always had a steady stream of fear-inducing philosophies and framework theologies, whose sum can be somewhere between regret and despair.

While much of these have their supposed provenance in the Bible, the Talmudic Sages instruct us that these analogies are simply analogies, conceptual tools. We're told, "The Torah speaks in the language of men". Without these metaphors, the human psyche would have little to grasp to begin the endless journey of understanding the Creator.

At times, "fire and brimstone" theologians have depicted G_D as a kind of grander human - perhaps old and wise - but more human in attributes than Divine. As you might imagine, it is a challenge to speak of a loving G_D once you have over-indexed on a G_D who is reactive, prone to outbursts of anger, shock, and sometimes, vindictive behavior.

This feels like a misrepresentation. Are we really to believe the Omnipotent One is truly subject to the same emotional roller coaster as we mortals? It seems incongruent to believe that G_D is surprised by our actions. Did G_D not foresee our mistakes long before the construct of time and space were created?

The midrash indicates He did, yet He created us anyway. Why? For what purpose were we created, and how might this reframe the experiences of life?

A Grander Perspective

We’re taught that we are currently in exile. Exile, by nature and design, is a period of darkness. And from this darkness, mistakes are inevitable. In The Secrets of the Redemption¹, the Ramchal teaches that exile in itself is productive, serving as a period of rectification and discipline. Thus, every hardship, every trial, and every mistake serves to this end, refining us in some way.