This week’s Parsha contains a valuable lesson on the nature of worrying. Many of us spend a lot of mental energy on worrying about the future and the terrible things that can possibly happen to ourselves or our loved ones. There is nothing wrong with being concerned and planning ahead to try stave off any possible dangers, but often we worry in ways that can be somewhat debilitating or counterproductive. The Torah is telling us that when we are wholly invested in believing that God is in control of the world, there is no need for us to worry to the point where we get paralyzed with fear over things that we have no control over.
After commanding us not to practice different types of future telling occult practices, the Torah says (Deut. 18:13), “You must be wholehearted with the Lord your God.” This verse seems out of place at first glance. What does walking wholehearted with God have anything to do the prohibition of trusting in forbidden fortune telling practices? Rashi has a beautiful answer to this seemingly strange verse which gives us some insight into human nature with regard to excessive worrying. Rashi says, “Trust in what God has in store for you; don’t go searching after what will happen in the future. Rather, you should wholeheartedly accept that everything that is going to happen to you is according to God’s plan, and then you will walk with God wholeheartedly.”
Rashi is pointing out, that often people become obsessed with what is going to happen in the future. We worry so much about what might possibly happen in the future that it impacts our decisions in the present, our sense of security, and/or our stress levels. So one way which people might try to alleviate the burden of worrying about the future is to go to a fortune teller, the hope is that once we know what will happen we won’t have to worry about it anymore. Human beings have a need to feel secure about their future. When we do not feel that security we feel like we are not in control. Knowing the future is a way for us to feel like we are in control.
Unfortunately for us, the Torah is telling us, that fortune tellers can’t give us a true sense of security and control. The Torah could have said that fortune tellers just don’t work, but it doesn’t say that. Instead of saying that they don’t work, the Torah simply says that we shouldn’t go to them. The reason for this is because in some way they do work. After going to a fortune teller, the person who believes in the fortune teller’s message will feel more secure with the knowledge they receive about the future, whether the fortune teller is correct or not. It is the illusion of security which can bring a person peace and comfort.
Rashi points out to us that the Jewish person’s sense of security cannot come from our illusions of being in control. Our sense of security needs to be derived from a complete faith in God: in the fact that God is in control and that God cares about us. If we were able to achieve such a faith, we wouldn’t ever worry.
There is no question that such a deep faith is very difficult to achieve, and worrying over the safety and security of our loved ones is such a very strong emotion that is difficult if not almost impossible for most of us to overcome immediately. But the lesson here isn’t simply, “don’t worry, be happy,” because God is in control. In the Parsha, the command not to go to soothsayers is telling us not to waste our time and energy on things that we are not in control over. Rather than make ourselves crazy worrying about every distressing thought that occurs to us, the Torah’s advice is spend to spend our energy more wisely. In light of the fact that the Torah is telling us there is no way for us to know the future, we need to draw a lesson on what to do when we feel the need to worry. In the Ethics of Our fathers (2:13), the Mishna asks, “Go and see what is the right way to which a person should cling…one who considers consequences.” The lesson here is that when we worry about something unknown, we should direct our energy to what we can do about it now. We should consider the possible consequences so that when we are worrying about the future when can think about what we can do in the present to impact our future. When we can use this energy to come up with a productive solution to deal with our concern, great! But when we have done everything that we can in the present, then we have to try to make ourselves stop the worrying and take comfort in the fact that God is in control. Worrying is only as useful as the motivation it provides us with to act in the best way in the present. When we can no longer use our concern for the future to motivate us to do something productive in the present, then the emotional energy exerted over the future begins to deteriorate our mental state in the present. This is a very difficult but very important lesson about the nature of faith with regard to our own worrying about the future.
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