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The Short Vort
Good Morning!
Today is Friday, the 41st day of the Omer 5782 and May 27, 2022
On Fear
“I will make their hearts so fearful in the lands of their enemies that the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. They will run as though fleeing from the sword, and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them.”
( This week’s Parsha B’Chukosai; 26:36,37)
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
The first inauguration address of Franklin D. Roosevelt, March 4, 1933
“Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.”
Henry David Thoreau, Journal Entry, September 7, 1851
“During that terrifying time — well over an hour - parents of students… gathered outside- a scene described as mayhem.”
(New York Times, May 27, 2022, Describing the situation outside the school in Uvalde, Texas)
The Torah describes for us the unfounded fear that will crush the spirit of the people as a punishment for their transgressions.
Fear is horrific.
When Thoreau wrote, “Nothing is so much to be feared as fear,” he was echoing the thoughts of the Torah in this week’s parsha.
In his first inaugural speech, FDR corrupted the phrase and made it sound as if being in fear of fear is baseless.
This is the opposite of what Thoreau - whose writings FDR based his address- meant.
Thoreau stated that being in fear of fear is real and perhaps the greatest fear.
FDR was saying once one realizes that they are “just” in fear of fear, they can banish the fear.
However, the truth is that being in a state of fear, especially when the fear is of fear of itself, is very, very frightening.
It is not something you can just dispel.
Rather, it is real and debilitating.
How does a person arrive at a situation where they are “in fear of fear.”
Loneliness.
Abandonment.
When a person feels alone, unanchored, and insecure, like a leaf blowing in the wind, they are in fear.
The Torah tells us that “unfounded fear” is the worst of fears.
The only way to avoid the curse of “and they will fall, even though no one is pursuing them” – -the only way to avoid having this “fear of fear” is to create an environment where people do not feel alone and abandoned.
Only in a place of loneliness can unfounded fear plant its deep roots.
We must do our best to eliminate loneliness in our community.
Reach out to someone.
Fear can only exist in a place of emotional desolation and loneliness.
We cannot allow the feeling of loneliness to fester in our community.
It’s not enough to tell people Hashem loves them.
YOU have to show and tell them that YOU love them as well
Have a wonderful Shabbos
I will be away this Shabbos as a Scholar in Residence at a retreat.
“If Not Now, Then When?”- Hillel
Ron Yitzchok Eisenman
Rabbi
Congregation Ahavas Israel
Passaic, NJ
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