We Can Dance!

Translated by Rabbi Lazer Brody

 
There are 2 types of redemption – the general and the individual, or the public and the private. Rebbe Natan of Breslev promises that even if the general public doesn't adopt and internalize the principles of emuna, as soon as a private person does, he merits his own private salvation. Rebbe Nachman explains that Hashem created the world to demonstrate his merciful lovingkindness. Once we discover Hashem and turn to him for real (not just going to synagogue and thinking about income tax), He's more than happy to show us His merciful lovingkindness. Hashem does great things for us – He solves our problems, cures folks of terminal illnesses when every doctor has given up, and even protects us against the strongest enemies.
 
Let's ask ourselves a question – if emuna is so great, and emuna bails us out of the stickiest situations – why isn't everybody running to learn about emuna? The answer is simple. People's own lusts and desires get in the way. They want to do one thing, but Hashem wants them to do something else – in that respect, truth and emuna get in their way. For example, if a man wants to eat something or look at something that the Torah forbids – and he can’t overcome his lust – he’ll simply say that the Torah is outdated. Those who can’t dance say that the floor is crooked.
 
The people with the uncontrollable appetites therefore throw emuna away, cast Hashem aside, G-d forbid, and thereby forfeit all the benefits of emuna. No wonder so many of them turn to alcohol, tobacco, drugs, prescription pills, and analysts – those are all the real price tag of the bodily urges and the personal desires that go against Hashem's will.
 
So, if a person learns emuna, and subjugates his or her will to Hashem's will, they not only reap the benefits of enhanced Divine blessings and providence, but they attain the awareness that everything is from Hashem. As soon as a person becomes aware of this fact, 95% of stress and anxiety fall by the wayside.
 
Let's go a step further. With emuna, we tell ourselves that our current difficulty in life comes directly from Hashem. We view stress situations as a periodic exam from Heaven, that if we apply emuna, we'll pass with flying colors. The way to graduate with honors in life, in any situation, is to tell ourselves that whatever is happening to us right now is not only from Hashem, but Hashem's will. Now, if you really want to excel in emuna, you tell yourself, “Hey, this is Hashem's will! Well in that case, it's my will too, because all I want to do is to go along with Hashem.” As such, once we make Hashem's will our will, there's no more stress, ulcers, heart attacks or anger. We now gain the necessary self composure to activate our brains, organize our thoughts, and function the best way we can. In a nutshell, that's how we neutralize stress. We don't even worry about the outcome, because we know that the outcome of any situation is in Hashem's loving hands.
 
At this point, the Evil Inclination (Yetzer Hara) intervenes and says, "Hold on! This is good? Look how miserable your wife is! Mister, you’re facing a catastrophe!” A man comes home to a gloomy wife – this is a potentially disastrous situation and a major test, but with emuna, it's a cinch. Remember that a household is a potential battlefield, where the Yetzer has mines laid all over the place; with no emuna, people are blowing themselves up all the time and their marriages look like Gaza City after the barrage. But, if you know how to avoid the Yetzer's booby traps, or even better, how to neutralize them, you pass a difficult test and come out the winner. Here's how, continuing with our current train of thought:
 
A husband is commanded to make his wife happy. If he sees that she's down in the dumps, and because of that he becomes gloomy too, then their problem becomes all the more acute. As soon as the husband becomes melancholy, the Divine Presence departs from him and he therefore forfeits Hashem's help. The household then becomes a disaster area.
 
But, when a husband looks at a delicate situation as a test of faith from Hashem to stimulate and enhance teshuva and emuna, he won't allow himself to fall in the trap of despair. He'll destroy sadness – his enemy – by asking for Hashem's help, strengthening his emuna, and smiling at his wife in optimism. His smile is not only encouraging, it's contagious. No wife can stay gloomy for long when her husband is smiling at her.
 
We have to remind ourselves all the time that everything Hashem knows best and does everything for the best. We have to talk about this all the time and remind ourselves all the time, because the Yetzer is all the time trying to make us forget that fact. When we see that everything is for the best, the Yetzer says the opposite – he’s called the “evil inclination” because everything he says is negative, or evil, or both. He always tries to chip away at our emuna. The Yetzer argues with his so-called logic: “You're boxed in, there’s no way out!” We know that’s not true, because emuna overrides logic. With emuna, there's no despair in the world! With emuna, we know that the floor is not really crooked, and we can dance!