Do Not Fear

It’s getting rough out there.  

Even a cursory glance at the news gives one the feeling that the busy season for the panic stricken is upon us.

In EmunahSpeak: Someone’s Knockin’ we quoted Rav Shimshon Pincus as follows:

We live in a very fateful generation.  It’s a twilight generation, something akin to bein hashmashos.

The period of radiance has passed, and we already hear the sounds of what is to come.  Moreover, we are living in a period when even looking out the window can be dangerous.

Someone who is wise can already hear a voice calling out from Shomayim.

We also said over there that Hashem changes the times, and in consideration thereof Rav Pincus held that we must be cognizant of what is going on around us so as to be able to devise corrective strategies.  

And he didn’t mean keeping on top of the news because he constantly spoke out against wasting time reading newspapers and such.

Being cognizant of what’s going on around us as per Rav Pincus refers to those times when Hashem shows His hand, be it ever so subtly.

To my thinking, Hashem seems to be showing His Hand even if it’s ever so subtly and it’s beginning to look like a redux of the Purim story, and it’s even being shot on location (Iran).

What to do?

We said in EmunahSpeak: The Call of the Hour that a number of….very serious seforim on emunah… have independently come to the conclusion that it is a matter of pikuach nefesh for this last generation before Moshiach to seriously strengthen its emunah in order to stay the course for what’s coming our way.

Simply put, we’re headed for a very bumpy ride, and if we don’t buckle up with emunah we risk being thrown from this world.

Being that the events of the day could well play out like a Purim meisa what could be better than to mechazik ourselves by drawing from the same well that Mordechai HaTzaddik drew from?

Citing Esther Rabba, Rabbi Yisroel Bernath informs us that when Mordechai learned of the wicked decree that Haman obtained to murder all of the Jewish people, he went out into the street and met three young cheder kinderlach. He asked each one to say over what he had learned that day in cheder.

The first boy answered, Do not fear sudden terror, nor the destruction of the wicked when it comes..

The second cited the verse, Contrive a scheme, but it will be foiled; conspire a plot, but it will not materialize, for G-d is with us.

And the third replied with To your old age I am [with you]; to your hoary years I will sustain you; I have made you, and I will carry you; I will sustain you and deliver you.

Rabbi Bernath tells us that from these three posukim Mordechai knew that the Jewish people should fear no enemy; he took it as a divine omen that Haman's plans to annihilate the Jewish people will come to naught and that G-d would deliver them from all danger. 

Those who instinctively look at their watches when they finish the Aleinu prayer may not have noticed that there are three posukim printed under it that we are supposed to say.  And not just any posukim mind you, but the very ones that the cheder kinderlach said over to Mordechai:  


Do not fear sudden terror, nor the destruction of the wicked when it comes.

One should not be afraid of fear, for fear is paralyzing and harmful in itself. Even when the wicked are there and planning to destroy the world, we should not be afraid.

Contrive a scheme, but it will be foiled; conspire a plot, but it will not materialize, for G-d is with us.

We should not be afraid. We say to our enemies "You may make your wicked plans, and utter your wicked threats, but nothing will come from them, for G-d is with us."

To your old age I am [with you]; to your hoary years I will sustain you; I have made you, and I will carry you; I will sustain you and deliver you.

No matter how long the exile will be Hashem will always "carry" us. We are Hashem’s responsibility. Our exile and dispersion among the nations of the world is also Hashem’s doing. He will, therefore, surely deliver us from our enemies and from this exile. 

And we also hear from Rabbi Bernath that reciting these verses expresses confidence in G-d's protection, and all are regarded as auguries of deliverance.  And if that weren’t enough, the Mekubalim tell us that many powerful things are hidden in these verses.

It may indeed be getting rough out there, but if we read these three posukim with kavanah after every Aleinu that we recite it need not concern us because just like Mordechai we will fear no enemy, the plans of the wicked will come to naught, and Hashem will deliver us from danger.