Excerpts from the popular shiur by Harav Yehuda Mandel shlit”a from Lakewood
The Purpose of Fear
In Parshas Vayishlach we learn about the upcoming meeting between Yaakov and Eisav. Yaakov hears the malachim saying that Eisav is coming toward him with four hundred men, “and Yaakov feared greatly.”
The Gemara (Berachos 4b, Sanhedrin 98b) asks why Yaakov was afraid. After all, Hakadosh Baruch Hu had promised him, “And I will safeguard you wherever you go”! The Gemara answers that he was afraid that perhaps Hashem’s protection had been removed from him because of his sins.
But these words still demand explanation. After having received an explicit promise from Hakadosh Baruch Hu, what was there for him to fear? There are several answers. Let us focus on two of them:
One is that Yaakov felt afraid. He told himself that his fear signified a lack in bitachon. This made him even more frightened that perhaps this lack of bitachon would cause Hashem’s protection to be removed form him.
And the message for us is: Bitachon is not voluntary, it is mandatory! A lack of bitachon is an aveirah!
A second approach is that in fact Yaakov was completely unafraid of Eisav. The fear he felt was a different sort of fear: Seeing that he was in a time of tzarah, this heightened his yiras Shamayim. Thus Chazal say that he was afraid of sin.
There is lesson for us here. Many times, a person finds himself in frightening situations, just like the imminent approach of Eisav with 400 men – such as a difficult illness, chas v’shalom, a very difficult financial situation, and so on.
Our job at such times is to strengthen our yiras Shamayim and to strengthen our bitachon. These situations come only in order to test a person and to see whether in times of tzaar he is able to focus on yiras Shamayim or whether he is afraid of the situation itself.
When we learn to control our natural feeling of fear, we will be able to channel it into yiras Shamayim and strengthen our emunah and bitachon in the fact that there is an Owner of the world – only One – and we are in His Hands, like clay in the hands of a potter. Then, certainly, Hashem will be filled with mercy toward us and we will be zocheh to experience bountiful yeshuos and miracles.
