“You know how they say a holy man falls seven times and gets back up?" he asked, quoting the Hebrew phrase, the ancient words flying smoothly off his tongue. I nodded. "I always think that it isn't the persistence that makes him holy but the fact that he fell." His eyes sparkled with passion as he spoke. "You can't really commit to being religious, to loving God, if you haven't spent some time with your face in the dirt.”