The Nature of Fear

Fear, of course, is an instinct - it's half the 'fight or flight' response hard-wired into our nervous system. But these two responses aren't equal. One is always stronger than the other, both in an individual, and in a given situation. Thus, the individual whose first response might be flight - be afraid and run away - might, in a particular case - react differently. The first reaction might be to fight - to attack and destroy the threat. That reaction might come from an instantaneous assessment that one is stronger than the threat, or it may come from the very nature of the threat. This threat I attack, that threat I flee.

The first thing we flee, the thing we are hard-wired to fear, is pain. Physical pain. But we also fear emotional pain. And intellectual pain. 

There's a difference between fear and pain: Fear is an emotion. An emotion of the future. It's based on experience, of course. Infants and fools are fearless, the saying goes, because they don't know better. Fear teaches us to "know better." 

It also deceives us. Fear creates false pain - magnifying what is, or what might be, or even what must be. How often after a painful experience - that can include giving a speech or the like - do we say, "that wasn't as bad as I thought"? Or, "that wasn't as painful as I expected"?

Pain of any kind is an experience of the moment. Pain exists in the present tense, and only in the present tense - unless we recall it to memory and re-experience it. Or unless we make it seem real out if its time and out of its proportion, but giving it jurisdiction over the future. But the pain of then doesn't hurt now. It's the pain of now that hurts now. We just turn the pain of then into the pain of now through fear.

Of course, there are things we should be afraid of. Experience is in truth a good teacher. But fear becomes stronger through self-deception - or allowing others to play on our fears.

In the book of Deuteronomy, among the curses for not following G-d's Will and doing His commandments, is one that states the people will flee in fear though no one pursues. A leaf will wave in the wind and the people will think an army chases them.

A day of terror should not become a lifetime of fear. A moment of evil should not define the future. 

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

There is, however, another kind of fear, although fear is the wrong word. Awe is a better word, though, they are sometimes used interchangeably when talking of the Divine. "Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." But the meaning here is reverence, being overwhelmed, humbled. That's a different kind of fear - the kind we shouldn't fear, but embrace.

Hurricanes and Earthquakes

Natural disasters, by their nature, raise the question of Divine Providence. How can G-d let this happen? How can so many innocent lives be lost?

When we see a person or a group of people committing great evil, it appears we can understand how it happens: human beings have free choice, and that person chose to do something evil. The consequences, well, G-d will see to that. 

But hurricanes, earthquakes - the flooding of homes, the dispersal of people, the cost psychologically, financially, to say nothing of physical hardship, pain, suffering and loss - where is the Divine Justice in that?

Some so-called "modern" thinkers have posited that either G-d is not All-Knowing, or He is not All-Powerful, or He is not All-Just (and by definition of "just," All-Merciful). In other words, Divine Omniscience, Divine Omnipotence and Divine Justice cannot all be true and operative. Two of the three, maybe, but not all three.

I say "modern" because this is an old question in theodicy, the study of Divine Justice. It's one, if not the, central subject of the book of Job. And it's no coincidence that G-d answers Job out of the whirlwind. Maimonides in his Guide for the Perplexed analyzes at length the concepts in the book of Job. 

So the question really does not disprove the assertion that G-d is simultaneously Omniscient, Omnipotent and Just. (Indeed, is that not the definition of G-d?) All the question does is raise itself: confronted with the unknowable or the unanswerable, how do we respond? How should we respond?

In other words, one can reject the very basis for belief in G-d. Many so-called "rationalists" or "modernists" do. Or one can accept the limitations of the human mind and human intellect. In a semi-comic vein, Tevye asks, in the song "If I Were a Rich Man," "would it spoil some vast Eternal Plan?" The simple answer is, yes, as a matter of fact, it would.

When we put on a philosopher's hat or a theologian's coat, we can enter the world of paradoxes and debates. But we must always bear in mind the statement of Rabbi Yannai that "we are unable to understand either the well-being of the wicked or the tribulations of the righteous." When it comes to the true, inner, spiritual reality, what you see outwardly is not necessarily what you get.

Nevertheless, the question remains - if we can't understand the WHY of a natural disaster, how are we to respond? For that, there is an answer. When confronted with tragedy, with the suffering of another, our task is not to understand the Divine reasons or judge the moral and spiritual value of the sufferer. Our Divinely ordained task is to increase in acts of goodness and kindness. Our focus must be on deeds that civilize, correct, heal, restore and improve.

If a hundreds-year old bridge is washed away, if a library is flooded, if a family is dispersed, if an individual needs medical care, if a child needs counseling - our task is to do, to get it done, to make goodness and kindness happen, not because we're such wonderful people, though we may be, but because that's our job. And that includes fixing what can be fixed - preventive measures - and in both cases figuring out the cost afterwards. 

Asking Why and How Much both divert us from the essential question: What is the next act of goodness and kindness that I can perform, the act that will transform the world?

Soul, Time and World

One of the principles of Jewish mystical thought is the parallel between the physical structure of the human being and the spiritual structure of creation. 

One such mystical concept is the three layer structure: there is an inner spiritual - and physical - layer, a middle layer and an external layer. Spiritually speaking, these are the soul, time and world. A human being possesses all three aspects. (We'll come back to this.)

The human embryo also develops in three layers - endoderm (inner), mesoderm (middle), ectoderm (outer).

The endoderm forms the lungs, thyroid, and pancreas; it also produces the stomach, intestines, etc. From the endoderm comes the respiratory and the digestive systems. Ironically, our innermost layer is the one with the most direct contact with what's outside us: air, food and water enter through endoderm organs. 

"And the L-rd G-d formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Gen. 2:7). We are soul-connected to our Divine origin.

The mesoderm, the middle layer, forms the skeleton and its muscles, connective tissues, the heart, blood, kidney and spleen. The middle spiritual layer is time - movement. The heart beats; there is rhythm. The skeleton and the muscles enable us to move. Time is a measurement of movement. And it is through time that the soul connects with the world. 

The ectoderm, the outer layer, forms the epidermis (skin), the central nervous system and the sensory organs. It is our sense of self, which psychologists tell us is the most external part of our being - the unconscious or subconscious (the endodermic or inner layer - the soul layer) being where most of "who we are" resides. (Athletes and performers know this: they become truly one - "in the zone" - with the performance or the act, and "lose" the sense of self.) The world outside us we perceive - and thus interact with - through barriers. There are borders to our perceptions (we cannot see ultraviolet light, for example, and need it "translated" into the visible spectrum). 

And now, so what? What is at least one lesson from this observation?

Agency: we require agency - the senses, including our skin, and their "interpreter," the central nervous system - in order to affect the world. We affect the world by how we move through it - movement, which is time, that results in change. And we ourselves, at our innermost core, are agents of G-d - we are sustained by the Divine  "breath of life" breathed within us.

Thus, our formation, physical and spiritual, indicates that we are an expression of G-dliness and the Divine life force within us. Let us reveal that as we move through life, for our movement automatically changes the world.