There was a weekly custom in the class. A student who had excelled throughout the week was rewarded with a small prize – a chocolate bar. Seven girls, each in her turn, were responsible for giving out the chocolate. One girl complained to the teacher that she had never received her prize. The teacher called the girls together to investigate. Everyone agreed that, yes, she deserved her share, but they’d forgotten to give it to her, again and again.
How did this happen? It seemed the girl had a tendency to worry, and she was constantly anxious about this, fearing she would not receiving the prize she deserved. These worries, as we know, are prone to be self-fulfilling. As it says in Mishlei (29:25), “A person’s fears will trip him up.” The Beis Haevi explains: The anxiety itself produces the very hindrance that the person is anxious about.
In the haftarah of Parshas Vayeira, we learn about the Shunamite woman. Elisha Hanavi promised her a child, and she reacted by saying, “Don’t disappoint your maidservant.” Something that doesn’t have real kiyum – that doesn’t have staying power, is called kozev – disappointment. In other words, she was telling Elisha: Don’t give me a blessing that does not essentially have the power to exist.
In fact, Elisha’s brachah came true, and she had a son, but the end of the story was not very happy. The child died. It seemed the Shunamite woman had known what she was talking about. The brachah was disappointing; it was kozev – it did not, essentially, have the power to exist.
But the truth is exactly the opposite! The blessing could have had the power to exist. What actually caused the child to die was her fear and her negative talk. This teaches us that the fear of negative things for no apparent reason can cause them to happen.
Someone who has a tendency to worry should learn sefarim of bitachon. This will calm him down, and even if he calms down only a little bit, that is already a great zechus, and in its merit the yeshuah will come!
