When we observe a small child taking his first steps, falling and rising countless times, an important point for hisbonenus presents itself to us: What is it that drives him to keep trying to walk? What’s wrong with where he is now? He is not missing anything at all — he is wrapped in warmth, love, and genuine care for his every need. Why, then, does he leave his comfort zone and try again and again to stand and walk on his own two feet?
In truth, every person has an initiating drive that seeks to break out of wherever he currently stands and move on to somewhere else. This drive sets a person on his feet already from a young age, with an aspiration to keep advancing and pressing forward, and were it not for this fundamental drive, a person would remain standing in place and never develop at all.
The Fading of Initiative
Yet as we continue to reflect on this, we notice, remarkably, that as the years go by this drive gradually becomes suppressed. Our initiating drive largely comes to a halt and fails to express itself, and even though in the outside, practical world we somehow manage to find some initiative and creativity, in the world of Torah and avodas Hashem this drive barely finds expression at all. It is worth trying to understand the reason for this, and whether it is possible to revive it once again in our avodas Hashem.
The central factor that prevents us from leaving our comfort zone is a lack of confidence and a fear of failure — to the point where we find it more comfortable to remain in the familiar, stable place, even if we are not fully at peace with it, rather than venture into a place where there is a risk of loss and failure. We place value on achievement rather than on effort itself, and we constantly measure and compare ourselves to those around us. Fear of criticism, too, affects us, causing us to remain mired in the same place for years on end, without budging.
Yozma: A Cornerstone of Avodas Hashem
We must know, however, that this initiating drive — this middah of yozma — is a cornerstone in establishing the stature of a man in general, and in avodas Hashem in particular. Rav Yeruchom of Mir would return again and again to speak of the intense need to be a “baal yozma” — a person of initiative — to leave one’s comfort zone and advance toward broad new horizons. We find this as well in the Borei Yisborach’s command to Avraham Avinu: “Lech lecha” — Go for yourself. Hashem commanded him to go, but did not spell out in any detail how or in what manner, and Avraham Avinu, for his part, had to draw upon his own yozma and continue developing further in the world.
We find this idea, too, in the building of the Mishkan, regarding which it is stated (Shemos 36:2): “And Moshe called Betzalel and to Oholiav and every wise-hearted man in whose heart Hashem had given wisdom, everyone whose heart stirred him to approach the work, to do it.” The Ramban explains there that although none of those who built the Mishkan were skilled or experienced in such labor, each of them nevertheless recognized within himself that he had the capacity to do it: “And his heart lifted him up in the ways of Hashem, to come before Moshe and say to him, ‘I will do it.’”
The builders of the Mishkan did not suppress their inclination for yozma out of fear that they might fail in their labor. They were not content to remain where they already stood; they sought more, and with a loftiness of heart, unafraid of failure and disappointment, they moved forward with their yozma and built the Mishkan.
A Personal Calling
Just as at the time of Kaballas HaTorah, every single member of Klal Yisrael heard the Divine speech addressing him personally, in accordance with his own powers and characteristics (Shemos Rabbah 5:9), so too within each of us there pulses a personal yozma in avodas Hashem, one suited to his individual personality and inner strengths. We must never suppress it under any circumstances; rather, we must try in every way to allow it to emerge and move forward.
Indeed, it is clear that not every yozma succeeds, and there will be times when we are ultimately forced to retreat. Nevertheless, the basic demand placed upon anyone whose heart has stirred him to stand before Hashem and serve Him (as the Rambam expresses it in Hilchos Shemittah V’Yovel 13:13) is to develop a “loftiness of heart” — the kind that does not allow fear of failure to hold back the yozma that pulses within him from rising and developing further and further.
The Lesson of the Leopard’s Boldness
We can further illustrate this with the words of the Mishnah in Avos (5:20): “Be as bold as a leopard… to do the will of your Father in Heaven.” We might assume that every time the leopard goes out to hunt, he succeeds — but this is not the reality. In most instances, the leopard does not succeed, and he must try again and again, time after time, in order to secure his prey. This is precisely the boldness of the leopard: he does not fear failure and does not retreat because of it, but tries again and again until he succeeds. This, then, is the basic message we must take for our life’s work — to do the will of our Father in Heaven.