Letter to Woman Depressed About Global Calamities

Welcome to our weekly program, The Inside Story of Chabad in America, through the Mindel archives.

Weeks ago in our weekly program I mentioned that since we are now in the month of Iyar — Iyar is an abbreviation for "Ani Hashem Rofecha" — an auspicious month for healing, for refuah — I shared with you some answers from the Rebbe to people who had problems, how to deal with anxiety, people who had depression problems, and that made problems in shalom bayis and other health issues, and the Rebbe answered each one what they need. You can always click back and see that, which I'm not going to repeat now again.

I also mentioned there that the Rebbe expresses himself in the English letters more clearly than in the Hebrew letters, the Igrot Kodesh, and the reason, I think, is this: the same message is said in the English letter and the Hebrew letter, but the Hebrew letters are limited — only a small percentage of people can read Hebrew, because not too many people know Hebrew, but English is probably ninety-five percent of the entire world. People that are not Jewish, and even frum Yidden, Chassidim, they also read English. So the Rebbe expresses himself in English much more clearly than in Hebrew.

And the reason I'm saying that, I think, is because when Rabbi Mindel in 1939 — the Frierdiker Rebbe asked him to come with him to America, and he wanted him to translate the Tanya into English — the Frierdiker Rebbe said to him that the Tanya is a closed book, meaning that it's only in Hebrew, so how many people can speak Hebrew in the world? And the Rebbe wanted to give over to America, to spread out into the entire world, and with just Hebrew you can't do that — you have to have English. So he asked Rabbi Mindel to translate the Tanya into English, because that covers ninety-five percent of the people in the world. So that's why I think that in the English letters he expressed himself much more clearly.

Now, after that program two weeks ago, I had many, many calls, many emails, and people asked me for more letters about depression, about anxiety, about certain problems, and I saw from the emails that many people have doubts. [Angela Torres?] from Las Vegas [?] — there is no greater joy than eliminating doubts. People have doubts and they have nowhere to turn — the only one they can turn to is through the Rebbe's answers, what the Rebbe speaks to people.

So I thought I would read today a letter from the Rebbe — another letter about depression. And by the way, I want to tell you, this book, Letter and Spirit, this is the first volume, and we have, baruch Hashem, five volumes — the sixth volume is going into print in a week, and we're also almost finished with the seventh volume. This is about health, answers about health, about the Holy Land, about science, about how to deal with family, and this is amazing — these are all English letters.

So I'm going to share with you a letter about somebody who asked about depression, but before that I want to mention something. Since we are now in the month of Iyar, meaning that Iyar is an abbreviation for "Ani Hashem Rofecha" — an auspicious month for refuah, for healing, for cure — the Rebbe asked a question: why Iyar? Hashem cures every minute, Hashem cures every month — what does it mean that davka in Iyar is an auspicious month? I mean, it is an abbreviation for refuah, but there is probably a deeper meaning why Iyar is an auspicious month. So he answers like this:

Everything in the world is by Divine Providence. Since Iyar comes after the month of Nissan — and just as Sivan comes after the month of Iyar, Tammuz comes after the month of Sivan, and so on — Nissan, we all know, is a month of nissim, miracles — two nuns. This is the time when Hashem took us out, Yetzias Mitzrayim, the biggest miracle. And the miracle of Nissan is, as it says, Hashem Himself did the miracle — not through a malach — Hashem Himself took us out. That's the biggest miracle of Nissan, that Hashem Himself did it.

Iyar is a continuation of Nissan, as it says, "All the sicknesses that I put on Mitzrayim I will not put on you, because I, Hashem, am your Healer" — Ani Hashem Rofecha. Hashem Himself is the Healer, even though He gave permission for a doctor. If a doctor cures, it's not the doctor, it's God — the doctor is only a shaliach of God.

So what's the difference between when God does it Himself and when a doctor does it? The difference is: when a doctor cures, there is a sickness and the doctor cures it, but, for example, God forbid somebody had a heart attack, so the doctor cures him, but you can still see that the person was sick, you can still tell. But when Hashem Himself does it — first of all, Hashem always does it in the first place, so the person doesn't get sick, and even if the person does get sick, after the sickness you can't even tell that the person was sick. That is the difference between when Hashem does it Himself versus through a doctor.

So Iyar is a continuation of Nissan, of the nissim — the nissim that were in Nissan continue now into Iyar, so that Iyar is an auspicious time for refuah. I saw in a sefer somewhere — I don't know where — that in New York, rain in the month of Iyar helps, is a healer. Some people, when it rains, they open their mouth and try to get the rain into their mouth. Anyways, since this is an auspicious time for healing, I would like to mention a few people — a few people mentioned to me — since many people listen to this program — for a refuah.

Now I want to read to you the English letter. It's a fundamental, basic letter, clear, and we don't have to analyze anything, but I want to read it to you. This is an answer to somebody who wrote about depression — a woman, because the Rebbe usually writes to a man "Greeting and Blessing," but to women he writes "Blessing and Greeting."

"I am in receipt of your letter in which you write about your thoughts and feelings as you look around and see what is happening in the world. As requested, I will remember you in prayer for the fulfillment of your heart's desire for good. With regard to some of the thoughts expressed in your letter, especially the depression which you feel induced by the negative aspects so common in life..."

And then the Rebbe writes something private which I'm not going to read, but I'm going to skip two paragraphs to where the Rebbe gets to the answer about depression:

"As for the actual cause of the depression about which you write, namely the suffering and pain that you see around you, raising the question why God does all this — and many people have this question, why does God do it — surely you know that this question was already asked by many a great believer, even Moshe Rabbeinu. Nevertheless, the inability of the human mind to grasp God's ways does not in any way distract the believer from his devotion and service to God with joy and gladness of heart, and certainly should not affect the effort and activities to spread Yiddishkeit. And while no one can compare to such a spiritual giant as Moshe Rabbeinu, in whose case it is small wonder that he was not affected by such distracting thoughts, yet the fact that the Torah tells us about it — and the Torah is not just a book of stories but, as the word "Torah," instruction, implies — it is clear that it teaches us that not only are such questions and doubts quite natural, but that after Moshe Rabbeinu had charted this path, he has made it easier for every Jew to follow in his footsteps and remain steadfast in absolute faith and trust in God.

On the other hand, it is not true to say that a Jew must never ask such questions. On the contrary, God desires the Jew to serve Him not only on the basis of pure faith but also with his intellect, and it is for this reason that God has endowed a human being with an intellect, to be able to understand, at least to some extent, God's ways. One must only remember the words of the prophet, 'My thoughts are not your thoughts, and My ways are not your ways,' and we cannot therefore draw inferences and conclusions on the basis of our thoughts and ways, but within our intellectual and mental limitations, God indeed desires us to inquire and probe and acquire such knowledge of God as possible.

One point that may be helpful to counteract the kind of depression you speak of is to remember that a human being, even if he lives to 120 years, has a limited existence on this earth, while the soul, which is the real essence of a person, is eternal and exists before and after it inhabited the physical body. Obviously, when the time comes for the soul to leave the physical body, by reason of the latter's old age or disease, the soul is not in the slightest affected by the physical cause of death, and continues its eternal existence. Consequently, can a human being logically ask what justification there is for any particular case of suffering, being entirely oblivious of what had happened in the course of hundreds or thousands of years of the soul's life before and after its sojourn in this physical world?

At the same time, we have the fullest assurance that God is just and equitable, and therefore it is certain that no evil comes from Him; on the contrary, there is a good reason behind every suffering, which is a blessing in disguise and which will eventually become evident and appreciated. And this is also the meaning of the verse in the Haftarah of the last day of Pesach: 'And you will say on that day, "I will thank You, O God, for having been angry with me; when Your anger turns away, You comfort me."' And You comfort me, by way of example — on the happy occasion when parents lead their child to the chuppah, and you remind the mother about the birth pains she had suffered when giving birth to the child, she will say, 'Thank God for those pains.'

It is surely not necessary to further elaborate to you on the above, especially as you could also discuss this with friends. I take this opportunity to express my fervent hope that you and your husband are continuing to do the good work to spread Yiddishkeit, and especially — in particular — this will help everything, and this will help children, b'ezrat Hashem, and this will help a lot of things."

So we see from here — this is, I think, a very important letter for people who have doubts.

Now, there's another letter attached to this — somebody asked, I don't know why it's attached to this, but also about depression. The Rebbe speaks so much — remember, as the Tanya says, they say a vort: an aveira is not a mitzvah, but atzvus, depression, is also not a sin, but what an aveira can bring, nothing else can bring — a person becomes dark, becomes clear, becomes dark — and what depression can bring, nothing else can bring; depression can bring the worst things.

So because the Rebbe speaks about this — this is a letter, the problem that's going to be in Letter and Spirit — that somebody asked, because he didn't have success and he feels bad, he becomes depressed. I don't want to go into it because we have no time.

So, as I mentioned before, since this is the month of Iyar and there are many, many answers about depression and about other inyanim of health, we hope to print all the English letters, and next week we will continue more about that. Thank you very much.