This Daf is the beginning of several dafs where we will examine themes related to unhealthy standards and perfectionism.

Our Gemara on Amud Aleph describes Torah as something that one cannot acquire unless he stumbles on it. On a simple level, this is referring to the process of learning. That is, to grapple with difficult subjects, it is a given that many errors will occur until the best understanding and formulation is arrived at. 

It is important to learn how to make mistakes, and to teach our children how to make mistakes . Not the foolish mistakes of negligence but the mistakes of taking risks to try to understand something or take on a new project. Even the so-called failures are merely steps toward arriving at a better understanding or solution.

My father, Rabbi Dr. Chaim Feuerman Z”L , who was a great mechanech with a 60 year career observed that in L’shon Kodesh there is no word for fail. There is sin, there is mistake, but there is no fail in the sense that is conveyed in English. It is, literally, not in the Torah vocabulary. In modern Hebrew they use the word “Kishalon”. However, the actual root of כשלון is to stumble, which implies a temporary set back. What a difference a word makes !

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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