The other day, I came across an article in the Jewish Observer about Rabbi Noach Weinberg, dean and founder of Aish HaTorah. In the article, Rabbi Yaakov Salomon briefly encapsulates the life of a visionary and influential personality. Rabbi Weinberg was only 16 when his father died and took a job at a tender age to ease his family's financial burden. Becoming aware of the great problem of assimilation, Rabbi Weinberg was determined to do something to combat the problem.

The author of the article writes, "Sheva yipol tzaddik vekam". Shlomo Hamelech informs us that a true tzaddok rises, even after falling seven times. But Rabbi Yitchok Hutner explains that the tzaddik's ability to pick himself up comes because of his experiences with failure, not despite them."

Rabbi Salomon then goes on to write, "After Rav Noach's failures with five organizations and three yeshivos, he succeeded in founding Shema Yisrael, which evolved into Yeshiva Ohr Sameach....Then he went off on his own to create Aish Hatorah."

Rabbi Weinberg's perseverance ultimately led to the world's leading Torah education website, Aish.com, which receives nearly 3 million visits per month.

"Failure is not the enemy of success; it is its prerequisite." Rabbi Nosson Scherman