The Emuna Feeling

Even if the world tells you different,

You can attain happiness and change in an instant.

Inner peace, real joy, no catch,

We live in disbelief cause we ain’t been there yet.  

Like Avraham, guided by the kishkas,

G-d brings the outcome, you only need a ribcage!

 —Nissim Black, L’Chaim

Imagine a huge pit. The diameter of the pit is the size of a football stadium. It is so deep that you cannot even see the bottom. If you were to drop a rock in there, an hour would pass before you would hear the impact.

Got that image? Great. Now make a bridge that links from one edge of the abyss to the other. Good. Take off any railings you can use to balance yourself on. This bridge is just a floor, nothing more. The “floor” of the bridge is just wooden panels tied together by two ropes underneath. Each panel is only 6 inches wide, barely enough to plant two feet side by side. Once you walk from one edge of the pit to the other, your weight will sink the makeshift bridge a few feet lower, and it will swing gradually from side to side.

Can you imagine having to walk it? Just one bad step and it’s down the abyss you go, never to be seen again. Even if you survive, it will take forever to get back up to the surface. Even if you succeed in taking it step by careful step, the stress and pressure of the journey is enough to give you a heart attack.

This is what Rebbe Nachman means when he says: All of the world is a narrow bridge, and the key to life is not to be afraid at all. His most powerful words are – don’t be afraid AT ALL. You have to dance as you walk the tightrope.

So, get moving. Life begins at those first critical steps from one end to the other. It gets really interesting as we are far enough from the sturdiness of the first edge, and we can feel our entire weight shifting dangerously from side to side. Once we are far enough along the way, all we can see are fathoms of darkness right beneath our feet. Just one minor miscalculation and it’s all over.

Then it happens. You lose your balance. Frantically, you try to reset your bearings and stand at the center of the bridge. It’s too late. You slipped to one side so much that the weight of your own body pushes you off the bridge. You try to grasp the bridge with your arms, but it’s no use. You begin to fall.

Before you even realize that it’s all over, before you even start to wonder how far the fall is until the final impact, before you even take a breath — SPLOOSH!

The entire pit was filled with crystal clear water. Instead of falling to your end, you merely sink down a few meters until the water halts your descent. On instinct, you swim up to the surface. The bridge, still swaying from side to side, is about a body’s length above you.

That’s it. All of it was an illusion. The biggest fear was exponentially greater than the actual outcome. You let out a big laugh, walk back to the start of the bridge, and try again.

This is life with emuna. It’s traversing that bridge with the knowledge that there is nothing at all to be afraid of. There is no pit of despair. The worst that can happen is you take a step in the wrong direction, fall down, and learn something new on the way back up.