The Power of Emunah - Do Not Fear at All

TITLE: The Power of Faith - Do Not Fear at All

By the Tzaddik, Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a

(From the Tzameah Nafshi newsletter, Parshat Naso)

"And the spirit of Hashem began to move him" (Judges 13:25)

The primary purpose of the creation of the world was to reveal His fear and His kingdom. "The fear of Hashem is pure, enduring forever." One must know that there is only the fear of Hashem; one must only fear Hashem, only be afraid of Hashem. Do not fear anyone—no person, not Haman, not Pharaoh, not Nazis. One must only have the fear of Hashem; it is forbidden to have any fear of a minister, a master, a thief, a robber, or a terrorist. The entire creation is in the aspect of kingdom, which reveals the kingdom of Hashem in the world. The entire creation says, "Hashem is King, Hashem was King, Hashem will be King forever and ever"—apart from Hashem, nothing exists. There are no terrorists, no murderers, nothing at all.

Rebbe Nachman says the first thing for the service of Hashem is that there should be no fear! The main thing you should receive from me is that you should have no fear. The Rebbe does not need cowards; the Rebbe cannot tolerate the faint-hearted. Why are you afraid? There is Hashem in the world, Hashem is alive and enduring. There are tzaddikim, there is Moshe Rabbeinu, there is Joshua the son of Nun; they rule here in the world, they are the prime ministers. If a person wants to succeed in the service of Hashem, if a person wants to succeed in anything, then the first thing is that he must have no fear—not a spark of fear. R' Natan Shapira (Megaleh Amukot) says that fear is the greatest impurity in the world. When a person is afraid, it means he has no faith; therefore, when a person has fear, he must uproot it from the source.

Rebbe Nachman says in Torah 249, "The essence of strength is in the heart, for one whose heart is strong and who does not fear any person or any thing can perform awesome acts of strength and conquer wars through the strength and force of his heart." A person must be a mighty warrior; a person must have endless courage. He must have strength in his heart, be brave of heart, and then he will be able to conquer all his wars. This is the aspect of "Who is the hero? He who conquers his inclination," because the first thing is to overcome evil thoughts, to overcome evil gazes. And this is what is written about Samson the hero: "And the spirit of Hashem began to move him between Tzor'ah and Eshtaol," for from those places the spirit of Hashem rested upon him, and he donned strength and received power and force in his heart. There, in that place, he tore the lion apart and performed awesome acts of strength.

Re' Natan says that when they threw Daniel into the lions' den, the king, who loved Daniel and did not want him to be killed, prayed that there would be some miracle so that Daniel would be covered and not exposed, because if the pit were exposed, there was a chance they would shoot arrows at him. The king knew the lions would not harm him, they would not rule over him; he was certain the lions would not devour him, but he was afraid that a person would shoot an arrow at him. But Daniel was not confused by anything; he guarded his faith. Daniel said: If Hashem protects me from a lion, He will also protect me from an arrow. The king said: "From an arrow I am afraid, from a lion I am not afraid." R' Natan asks: What is the difference between an arrow and a lion? R' Natan explains that when a person sees a beast, he can guard his faith. Even if a lion attacks him, he will shout "Shema Yisrael" with all his faith, with all his strength, and he will nullify the fear of the lion, because a lion cannot cause a person to fall from his faith. On the contrary, when he sees the lion, he receives even more faith in Hashem; he cries out to Hashem more strongly, and Hashem saves him from the lion. But if a human being comes and aims an arrow at him, and this person is a murderer, a heretic, a person without faith—a wicked person—then he is worse than a lion, because he can cause him to fall from his faith. R' Natan explains that this murderer is a demon; he is not a human being at all. He is full of heresy, and his heresy radiates onto the person he is going to murder and clings to him. The person becomes confused by the heresy, by this radiation, and says, "Why are they killing me? What did I do?" He becomes filled with questions about faith, and that is what causes a person to fall from faith, from the cry to Hashem. But if a person overcomes these thoughts, these fears, then even if a Nazi murderer comes to a person with a pistol against his chest and shouts at him, "I am shooting you," and that person remains firm in faith, pure in faith, then nothing can be done to him.

Just as they tell a true story from the Holocaust: a Nazi stood to shoot a Jew, stood him against a wall, and said to him, "Now I am killing you!" The Jew said to him, "You cannot kill me! Only Hashem can kill me!" The Nazi became angry and said, "I am killing you! Here, I am shooting you!" The Jew said to him, "It is Hashem shooting me, it is not you." The Nazi said to him, "I am shooting! I decide!" The Jew said to him, "No! It is only Hashem; only Hashem can shoot me." The Jew went through the entire war, went through everything, and knew everything: "It is Hashem, there is nothing apart from Hashem." That Nazi fell silent; he fled for his life. He thought: "If everything is Hashem, then I am not prepared to be the messenger of Hashem," and that Jew was saved.

Everything that happens to us during our 120 years, everything that happens to us, is only trials. Trials with Nazis, with terrorists, with murderers, with harsh decrees—and one must reveal the faith hidden in the heart, to reveal the faith so that we do not fall in our minds because of any minister, any person, any enemy. One must strengthen oneself in the truth that there is only Hashem, and stand on the faith that Hashem is One and everything is imagination, everything is null and void. And the main thing is to believe in the true tzaddik, to believe in such a tzaddik who can influence such faith that there is only Hashem, who can illuminate such faith, who can reveal the point of faith. For alone, it is difficult to reach such faith; only one who is attached to a truly true tzaddik can have the tzaddik awaken him to this faith and develop it, so that he can truly use this point of faith. For the tzaddik is entirely nullification to Hashem; he has no reality, he has no entity, he is in a state of nullification to Hashem Yitbarach. He has no fear of anything. And whoever merits to reach such a tzaddik and receive from the tzaddik this nullification, this faith—which is a very high and awesome level—then everyone will bow and fall before him; all the enemies, all the Nazis, all the terrorists, all will bow and fall, they and those like them.