Welcome to Emotional Wellness Daily.
Emuna and Bitachon are very important for living a healthy life, and not just a spiritually healthy life, but an emotionally healthy life. Rav Wolbe, in an essay based on a speech that he gave to psychiatrists and psychologists (page 64), says that the fundamental feeling of one that lives in the Torah world is bitachon, reliance on Hashem. He quotes a pasuk in Yeshaya 12,2:
הִנֵּ֨ה אֵ֧ל יְשׁוּעָתִ֛י אֶבְטַ֖ח וְלֹ֣א אֶפְחָ֑ד
Behold, God is the One of my salvation, I rely on Him and I’m not afraid.
He says, that is the spirit that goes throughout all of the writings of our Nevi’im
Another pasuk he quotes is,
Hashem is my light and salvation. Who am I afraid of, Hashem is the strength of my life, who am afraid of?
He says that a Jewish home is built on the world of endearment that he calls an Olam HaYedidut/a world where God is our friend and we're comfortable.
He says that the outside world, which is involved in the ongoing war of the survival of the fittest, is a definitely a breeding ground for fear.
It's not a coincidence, he says, that fear and anxiety are the common denominators that run through all of psychology. He quotes Martin Heidegger, a German philosopher who said, “The feeling of fear is the most fundamental feeling that a person has in the world.”
What is the reason for this anxiety, that is more prevalent in our generation than ever before?
Possibly, he says, it's a lack of economic stability. Possibly, it's the fear of nuclear warfare. Or, I'll add, global warming. But, he says, Without a doubt, the fact that the world is a world where most people are no longer believing in God is one of the biggest causes for the spread of anxiety. Someone who's raised in what he calls the Olam Hayedidut/ the world of dear connection with God knows not to be afraid.
He stresses that this general feeling of Emunah and Bitachon is only regarding basic existential fears of just being in the world. Someone that had childhood trauma or biological problems that are causing anxiety, of course, needs therapy and/or medicine. We're talking about a basic, healthy person, who is still going to suffer from anxiety because of the general world feeling. That's a world without a Creator, a scary, cold survival-of-the-fittest world.
The general, basic background of religiosity, we can call it, is going to give a person that feeling of being in a safe world.
That safe world feeling is brought about through Emuna and Bitachon. And therefore, the more Emuna and Bitachon we have, the more we'll have a basic world that's a safer world.
Rav Wolbe also writes about this in his letters (volume one, letter 170), where he says, “The basic approach of the world, that's not the Torah world, is a world of fear, whether it's atom bombs or wars.” And, he says, this is not a fear of any immediate danger. He says, there are two kinds of fears. There's an immediate danger that's here right now. Then there is the general feeling that this world is a dangerous world. That, he says, is the area, where Emuna and Bitachon is also necessary. We're not talking about when we have an threat, a health threat, or a financial threat. He’s talking about, in today’s terminology it's a General Anxiety Aisorder, GAD. We aren’t talking about a severe disorder. It’s general anxiety, when you get up in the morning with the feeling that something is going to go wrong. What's going to happen? What's gonna be?
That kind of feeling can be ameliorated with the basic Jewish outlook that comes from being raised in a Jewish home.
הִנֵּ֨ה אֵ֧ל יְשׁוּעָתִ֛י אֶבְטַ֖ח וְלֹ֣א אֶפְחָ֑ד
Behold, God is the One of my salvation, I rely on Him and I’m not afraid.