Yesterday we began discussing the concept of not worrying about tomorrow, what we call דאגת מחר Da’agat Machar, one of the benefits of bitachon.
We quoted a song, which is actually more than a song. It’s brought down in the sefarim, and the Pele Yoetz says it when he talks about the topic of Worry.
העבר אין- העתיד עדיין -דאגה מנין
The past is nothingness
The future hasn’t come yet,
What are you worried about?
And he continues with the words,
:-קום שתה יין
Get up and drink wine.
The wine refers to the wine of Torah.
The “wine” of Torah will calm you down.
In Shir HaShirim, it says
הביאני אל בית היין
He brought me to the banquet hall
The Midrash says this refers to Har Sinai
The Jewish substance, for which to calm one’s nerves, is learning Torah. So learning about Bitachon calms one down.
It’s actually a Gemarah in Masechet Yevamot, where it says,
"אַל תָּצַר צָרַת מָחָר כִּי לֹא תֵדַע מַה יֵּלֵד יוֹם שֶׁמֶּא מָחָר בָּא וְאֵינֶנּוּ, נִמְצָא מִצְטַעֵר עַל עוֹלָם שֶׁאֵינוֹ שֶׁלּוֹ
Don’t worry tomorrow’s worry, because we don’t know what today will give birth to. Maybe tomorrow will come and the problem won’t be here at all. You are worrying about a world that is not even yours.
The Steipler has a letter, (#102) entitled with this very line, quoted from the Gemara,
אל תצר צרת מחר
Don’t worry tomorrow’s worry
(This would be a great bumper sticker)
In this letter, written to a man who was worried about a sick family member, the Steipler says Hashem should send a Refuah, but he also shares a rule: “A person should never worry about what is going to be, because everything that a person is worried about is really דמיונות/fictitious imagination” It doesn’t even exist. There is no reality to it. Your brain projects doomsday pictures.
The secular term for this is catastrophic thinking, but it’s rooted in the Torah.
He says the person will see that his worries don’t come to fruition, and all he is left with is the worry and depression, which breaks a person’s spirit. Things have a way of working out. You have to use your bitachon and realize
ישועת ה׳ כהרף עין
Hashem’s salvation comes in the blink of an eye
In the song we referred to yesterday, one of the rhymes is
העבר עין
העתיד עדיין
דאגה מנין
תשועת ה׳ כהרף עין
The Steipler reiterates, Don’t be worried and down, because that weakens a person. Furthermore, he says, there is no reason to worry. Hashem is in charge.
כל דעביד רחמנא לטב הוא דעביד
Things will work out.
That is the Steipler’s advice. By and large, things work out. People worry about things that never even come to fruition.
Just yesterday, I met a man who told me that when the pandemic started, he was petrified about his livelihood. His wife told him, “What are you worried about? Every time we have a financial struggle, in the end Hashem works it out.” Sure enough, he told me that in the end, he made more money. He didn’t end up needing to use the space he had rented in the past, because he was working virtually. His expenses were lower, and his income was better. In all areas of his life, things turned around for the better. He was collecting for a certain charity, and was worried about asking people for money, but when he asked, one man who had previously given $400 per year pledged $400 one week, for a family member that wasn’t well, and then pledged another $400 the next week. Ultimately, that donor told the man he would just continue to give $400 every week.
Here he was, worried that he wouldn’t be able to collect money for this charitable organization, and it turned around.
The Steipler tells us that we should really look back, at all the things we worried about, that never even happened.
This is of the secret tools of Bitachon, to overcome worry.
As we have said, there is secular terminology for this as well, but it is missing the secret answer.
As we once discussed, the Elder of Kelm worked on Menuchat HaNefesh/peace of mind, very much. His daughter once went to a doctor, and the doctor told her that she needed to be more relaxed (this was pre-Sarno). The Elder of Kelm asked his daughter what pharmacy she could find relaxation in. In other words, what is the answer?
And without Bitachon, there is no answer.
Stop worrying. That’s the message.
There are many quotes about this, with authors unknown. Here are a few:
“If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.”
“If you worry about what might be, And wonder what might have been, you will ignore what is.”
“Be here now, be someplace else later.”
Is that so complicated?
“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift”
“If you have one eye on yesterday, and one eye on tomorrow, you're going to be cockeyed today.”
There are a lot of great quotes and beautiful statements.
The bottom line is, stay in the present.
How do you do that?
How do you get there? How do you stop getting depressed about what might happen? How do you stop worrying about what is going to be? The only answer is Bitachon. That’s it.
The secular approaches are nice, but they don’t really solve the problem.
That’s why Bitachon is the only answer for “Don’t worry about tomorrow.”