I find myself fearful of the future, particularly when I hear about world events such as the election of someone in government who will be bad for the Jewish people. What is the spiritual way to deal with fear?
In order to understand correctly how to deal with fear, we have to reassure ourselves that the fact that we feel fear does not mean we don’t have emunah. We are ma’aminim bnei ma’aminim, and even if we are filled with fear, we would give up our lives al kiddush Hashem, which just shows that being fearful does not mean we aren’t committed to Hashem! The yetzer hara tries to convince us that if we have fear, that means we have no emunah, and if we would have emunah, we would feel no fear. This is a hoax, just like any other trick from the yetzer hara. Every Yid has emunah! Sometimes our emunah just gets covered up by various factors, and we need to do a little work to uncover it.
The Torah is infinite, and the Torah provides pathways for every type of person to work on improving themselves. Every Yid should try to identify which particular avodah works for him or herself. So let’s look at three different ways of dealing with fear.
1] When one feels fear, he should fill himself up with thoughts of emunah, and strengthen himself that ein od milvado, there is nothing but Hashem Yisborach. “I have nothing to fear, because there really isn’t anything except Hashem!”
Cause and effect is a myth. Hashem is the only cause of every effect! Since Hashem has set up a world of teva, it looks like there is cause and effect. For example, because Hashem decided that someone should get sick, He orchestrates that the person will get sick in a ‘natural’ way. But of course it is Hashem, and only Hashem, Who does everything.
The way to work on this kind of bitachon is by learning seforim that talk about emunah and bitachon, this will uncover the emunah that you already have built in. Another way to uncover your emunah is to refrain from listening to and reading things that undermine your emunah because they link everything to cause and effect. This will peel off the klippos that cover your emunah!
Another tool we should use is our power of speech. The Tzadikim teach us, “hemanti ki adaber,” I believe because I speak. When one talks about emunah, he will come to believe. Talk to Hashem and tell Him, “I really want to believe that You do everything, and that there is nothing but You, please help me internalize these thoughts, help me uncover the emunah that is already within me.” Talk about emunah to your friends, and even to yourself, by speaking out loud that Hashem is the cause of every effect. In the end, you will get fired up with emunah!
2] Some people may find the first strategy to be too difficult, and they have a hard time trying to “delegitimize” the fear by remembering that it is all Hashem. There is a different avodah you can try, which is not to try to go away from the fear, but rather to fill up the fear with Hashem Yisborach!
When you feel fearful of something, think, “Who is the one who brought about this hardship? Hashem Himself! So this fear and difficulty is a messenger of Hashem to wake me up from my spiritual sleep.”
The avodah is simply to invoke the compassion of Hashem Yisborach through teshuvah, tefillah and tzedakah. Rather than putting your efforts into dealing with the superficial “source” of the fear, you instead channel your efforts to the true Source, by clinging closer to Hashem.
3] Another way of dealing with the fear is by reassuring yourself that, “True, I am afraid, but Hashem will surely watch over me.” This avodah is a mix of the two earlier avodahs, since it legitimizes the fear, and then breaks it with emunah.
Choose the avodah that works for your nefesh, and with Hashem’s help you will see that the fear can evaporate totally. These tools really work!
After you have done the avodah that fits for you, and you still haven’t seen a yeshuah ch”v, it’s important to remember that “kol d’vid racmana l’tav avid,” whatever Hashem does is for the ultimate good. We don’t know Hashem’s calculations; He is the only One Who really knows what is good for us. [Bear in mind that there are lots of stories that illustrate this, like stories of people who missed their flights and were saved from a tragic fate, etc.]
This can also be another tool you can use to conquer fear, when you know in the back of your mind, that in the end, whatever happens is for the best.
In order to get a little bit of a clearer picture of the different avodas we brought up, I would suggest splitting up the types of fear into two categories. There is a fear of bad things that can happen, like getting sick, lo aleinu, or fear from poverty, etc. The common denominator between these is: that it is more apparent that they come directly from Hashem, because the ‘middleman’ is not seen. A second kind of fear is a fear that comes from a person with free will, like fear from a terrorist. Here the “middleman” is seen. The way to deal with each of these fears differs, as we will explain, with Hashem’s help.
[Both of these type of fears usually intensify when they are a close call, when one hears about any of these things that happened to an acquaintance R”l, or when someone is faced by imminent danger like a terrorist or a wild animal, and even when one sees the beginning of a danger, like the election of a rasha to government.]
When dealing with a fear that comes directly from Hashem, it is usually easier to use the first technique, to strengthen our emunah by knowing that Hashem has brought this about, and everything is from Him, from beginning to end. He has simply clothed it in a ‘natural’ way.
For example, if one has a fear of radiation, that this will chas v’shalom make him sick, he has to remind himself that radiation cannot make a person sick!! Hashem decides who should become sick, and sometimes that decision makes this person sensitive to radiation. We all see that it only hurts certain people. {Obviously, one has to do regular hishtadlus to be healthy, like it says “v’nishmartem meod l’nafshoseichem.” I don’t mean to go into that sugya now.}
The Chazon Ish was once asked if one may fly on an airplane, since in those days there were frequent crashes. He famously answered that one may fly, because “planes do not fall down; people fall down.”
Obviously, one may use the second technique mentioned here as well. I am just trying to demonstrate that you may find the first way easier when the difficulty seems more ‘natural.’
[This does not mean that one may go against very clear nature “because it’s all up to Hashem anyway.” For example, one may not stick their hand into a fire and say, “Well, Hashem is in charge, and if I am not meant to get a burn, that won’t happen. The very fact that he is challenging Hashem’s ways of nature creates a kitrug on the person that can make him worthy of getting a burn, chas v’shalom, even if he otherwise did not have a decree to get burned].
On the other hand, when one has a fear that comes through a baal bechirah, it is usually easier to apply the second technique, of seeing this person as a shliach of Hashem to bring us to teshuvah. Instead of looking at the fear as its own entity, look at it as a shliach of Hashem to bring you close to him.
Obviously, here also one can apply the first technique, applying steadfast emunah that no one can do anything to him, and it is all really Hashem, like in many famous stories, there were people who worked on feeling ein od milvado and were saved from terrible fate.
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 61.