There are two ways to get through hard times. The first is by virtue of one’s deeds. When the anti-Jewish decrees preceding the Holocaust began, people came to ask the Chafetz Chaim. They were worried. What will be? What can we do? The Chafetz Chaim answered that there is no better advice than that of Chazal:
What should a person do to be saved from the birth pangs of the Mashiach? He should occupy himself with Torah and acts of chesed.
But this needs to be accompanied by the right attitude. If a person feels like everything belongs to him, as if he has everything coming to him, and he can’t learn unless he goes on trips during bein hazemanim, and he doesn’t think and worry about the future, then nothing will help for him. This is why we were given Tishah b’Av. It is not just for the past; it is for the future, too.
This brings us to the second way. We need to do what the Navi said:
Go, my people, come into your rooms, and close your doors behind you!
If a person closes himself up within Torah and yiras Shamayim, and all the fierce winds that are blowing outside don’t interest him, if he fortresses himself off, then he will be protected. If bad times come, chas v’shalom, he will be safe within his shelter, and all the storms ravaging the world will not reach him.
