[Ed. Note] Out of the respect and recognition of the impact made by longtime BJL friend and contributor, Reb Shaya Gross, z’l, we will maintain a living memoriam to Shaya through the sweet words and thoughtful insights of  his Divrei Torah. BJL readers will remember his weekly column on the Parsha and on various Torah ideas and concepts. These meaningful words will help us remember this special young man who will be sorely missed and for those who did not merit to know him, this will be the most appropriate way for them to become familiar with who he was.

The Gemara tells us that the color of the techeiles [the blue string of the Tzitzis] is similar to the color of the sea, which is similar to the color of the sky, which is similar to the color of Hashem’s throne; hence the techeiles should remind us about Hashem and his Mitzvos.

Rav Moshe Feinstein asks, why don’t we put on our Tzitzis the color which is most similar to Hashem’s throne, and not this seemingly complicated circuitous route?

Rav Moshe answers, that the Torah is teaching us a very fundamental principle in Avodas Hashem: We are supposed to elevate ourselves in stages. We aim for great heights, but we should take it one step at a time. Therefore in our pursuit of spirituality and thinking about G-d via the Techeilis, we do it with this lengthy process to remind us to take small steps and not one big leap.

Some see this as the dispute between Kalev and the other spies. They were saying, ‘it is a land that eats its inhabitants’, i.e. that we have to be on a very high level in order to last in Eretz Yisroel and if not we will die. Kalev’s response, quoted by Rashi was, ‘if we have to go up to Heaven we will make ladders to get there’. One of the Chasidic Rebbes explains that he was saying “yes we have to aim for Heaven but we will do it like climbing a ladder”, i.e. one step at a time! Although Hashem wants us to reach for great heights, the way to achieve those goals is by working on ourselves one step at a time.

May we all take this lesson to heart: to have lofty goals and aspiration, but to accomplish them by working on ourselves slowly but surely.