And Despair Shall Have No Dominion
By Rabbi Yitzchak Blau

R. Nahman of Breslav (1772-1811) and R. Zadok ha-Kohen of Lublin (1823-1900) came to hassidut from very different beginnings. The former was a direct descendent of the Baal Shem Tov while the latter received a traditional mitnagdic upbringing. Nevertheless, the two of them share a common distaste for despair.

In Divrei Soferim (16), R. Zadok asks why the beginning of the Jewish nation, Yitzhak’s birth, happened only after Avraham and Sarah had given up hope of having children. He explains that this beginning implanted within the Jewish consciousness the notion that there is never cause for yeush (despair) because salvation can always come. A Jew knows that with regard to both spiritual and physical difficulties, the darkest nights are followed by the dawn.

Avraham initiated this Jewish approach to crises when he chose to rescue Lot from the four kings at a time when the rest of Mesopotamia was terrified of their collective might. The number of men (318) led into this battle by Avraham is one more than the gematria of yeush (10 + 1 +6 +300 =317). Avraham moves beyond despair in heading off to save Lot despite the terrible odds.

Based on this idea, R. Zadok explains an enigmatic line in the gemara (Sukka 31a). A woman complains that the resh galuta has stolen her wood to make a Sukka. She says "how

could you do this to a woman whose ancestor had 318 servants." Why does she relate her lineage back to Avraham specifically? The halakha states that an owner can lose rights to a stolen object when he or she has given up. The woman cried out to those sitting in the sukka “Do you think that because you wield the authority here, I have given up hope of retrieving my goods (and it would then be permissible to use such a sukka). I am a descendant of Avraham and we never have yeush”.

How does a person avoid despair when doubt of his or her self worth begins? R. Nahman (Likutei Moran 1:282) says that the way to judge others favorably is to find the “me’at tov” (bit of good) in them. A pasuk in Tehillim (37: 10) states “ve-od me’at ve-ain rasha ve-hitbonanta al mekomo v’enenu”. The simple peshat in this verse is that Hashem is telling Dovid Hamelekh not to worry about the wicked who will soon receive the appropriate punishments. By contrast, R. Nahman explains that it is the focusing on the “me’at”, the little piece of goodness in the rasha , that leads to the disappearance of the wicked. The rasha disappears not because he is destroyed but because he is no longer a rasha.

R. Nahman says that the same applies to one’s judgement of oneself. To avoid depression, a person must learn to focus on the positive aspects of his or her life. R. Nahman compares the search for small bits of goodness to the composition of a melody. Just as the songwriter sifts through numerous notes, selects a few good notes and joins them together to form a song, so we join together the worthwhile aspects of ourselves to form spiritual music.

The song metaphor functions on an additional level as well. As the depressed person lacks the ability to sing (and pray), it is this concentration on the positive that enables a person to sing. Thus, isolating the good parts both resembles song and enables song. This leads R. Nahman to posit a new interpretation of the verse “azamrah l’e-lokai be-odi” (Tehillim 146: 2). Finding the “od” of the “od me’at” allows an individual to sing joyously.

R. Nahman recommended that his disciples always carry this Torah around with them as he saw the depression that comes with a negative view of oneself as the main factor in keeping people estranged from God. May we find our internal melody resonant enough to drown out the debilitating effects of depression.