9. Sky Hooks

Ever feel overwhelmed?

And then some well-meaning soul comes over to you, reads your brow furrows, and sympathetically asks how you are doing? And then, after you mutter a perfunctory reply, gazes dolefully into your anxious eyes and adds, “Don’t worry. Think positive.”?

"Think positive!" you nearly blurt out, "You jerk. What will that help? If only you knew how miserable things were for me right now, you’d never..” but maybe, just maybe 'think positive' is more than just a trite expression.

Indeed that’s a view supported by the concensus of no less than 225 psychological studies analyzing attitude and outcomes for a whopping 275,000 people. Try to defend a bad mood in the face of those findings. The review paper, published in the Psychological Bulletin, analyzed the relationship between attitude and many measures of success in life and ascertained that it is generally happiness that brings success, rather than success bringing happiness.

Lead researcher, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., of the University of California, Riverside, said “Happy individuals are more likely than their less happy peers to have fulfilling marriages and relationships, high incomes, superior work performance, community involvement, robust health and even a long life.”

This is but one more example of modern science catching up with timeless teachings. The Torah, the Talmud and the Chassidic Masters have all advocated serving the Creator with joy, promising worldly benefits for those who do. As the third Chabad Rebbe, Menachem Mendel of Lubavitch, put it: “Tracht goot, vet zayn goot. – Think good and it will be good.”

This approach to life is classic “bitachon”, the highest level of trust that G-d will take care of you. A basic level of faith is “emunah” where whatever G-d does is good in your eyes, since even if He punishes (G-d forbid!), it’s all for the best as He sees it. A higher level is the trust that He will do good in a revealed way, granting you all your needs as you see it.

But this seems very naïve! How can one trust he will merit overt goodness, when even great and saintly people were fearful of Divine retribution?

The answer lies in the littlest things, in the nature of the quantum. At this most basic level of physical reality, people count. Science used to teach that the world is “out there” with people being separate from nature, and insignificant overall. That whole picture has been overthrown by quantum physics which shows us how each individual can actualize his choice of the potentials that exist in the world. Thus positive attitudes actualize positive potentials.

To illustrate, there’s a story about a fellow who was always anxious and overwhelmed. He went to seek counsel with the Ba’al Shem Tov who sent him to observe the conduct of a certain innkeeper in a far away village. The innkeeper welcomed him warmly and they were speaking one morning when suddenly a gruff, burly lackey of the landlord burst in with a fist-pounding demand for the back rent that was owed, a monumental sum of 3,000 rubles, to be delivered to the landlord by 5:00pm. The innkeeper reassured him that he would take care of it and the servant left.

The visitor was still quaking in the wake of this rude home invasion, as he stammered a sympathetic query to the innkeeper about the requisite funds. But despite the fact that the innkeeper had barely a few rubles to his name and not the faintest inkling where he could find more, his demeanor was serene as he replied “G-d will provide,” and he set up refreshments for the visitor.

Again at 2:00 pm the servant burst in, slammed his fist on the innkeeper’s counter and bellowed, “Don’t forget. 5:00 pm. The whole rent. Don’t be late. . . or else!” By now the visitor was beside himself with fear, trembling over what grim future lay in store for the hapless innkeeper and his family. But the innkeeper kept his cool. “It’s all up to the One Above. Everything will work out fine,” he said, as he continued on with his work, humming away, apparently mindless of the impending deadline.

Shortly before 5:00pm, the inkeeper picked himself up, took his leave and headed out the door emptyhanded, while the visitor looked on aghast. Part way to the mansion, he encountered a wagon which slowed and then stopped while the innkeeper apparently exchanged words with a passenger inside. After a moment the wagon and the innkeeper head off their separate ways, but only briefly because the wagon suddenly did an about face and headed back to meet up with the innkeeper. A longer conversation apparently ensued, and once again they resumed their respective journeys and a little while later the innkeeper disappeared through the gate to the landlord’s estate.

The poor visitor, fearing the worst, picked up a book of Psalms and started praying fervently, hoping against hope for a miracle. He was thus engaged when not long after the innkeeper returned and without fanfare returned to his work about the inn.

“What are you doing here!?” exclaimed the visitor. “How did you escape? What’s going to be now?”

“Calm down. Let me explain. Along the way I met a local businessman who asked me how much I want for this year’s grape harvest. Without a second thought I told him 3,000 roubles. He was shocked saying it’s ridiculously overpriced but I told him that’s my price and I’m not budging. We parted company with no deal, but a minute later he changed his mind, caught up with me, and paid me in full on the spot. As I told you, it’s all up to the One Above.”

What the Baal Shem Tov was trying to teach the visitor by sending him to the innkeeper was not how to rely on miracles, for who can rely on miracles? The lesson was in positive thinking. “Think good and it will be good.” When we trust in the One Above to take care of all our needs, without any second thoughts, then, as they say, what goes around comes around, and G-d responds in like manner, taking care of all our needs, without any second thoughts on His part.

The science of positive thinking shows the practical value of an optimistic attitude and how that works to improve your life. The ultimate art of positive thinking is “bitachon”, a trust in G-d so total, that you’ll hang in there fearlessly, without even a sky hook in sight.

- Shaarei Emunah, Ch.27