Internal Hope

By: Jonathan Seidel

Existential yaiush and zuto shel yam (Luchot, 57)

The talmudic concept of yaiush/despair is when one gives up on an item. A finder can claim the item if the owner has given up trying to retrieve it. This is then preached by Rebbe Nachman that there is no despair in the world at all. A melody touted by his successors. Yet such a claim is wholly unique. 

Rebbe Nachman’s famous saying comes through a long piece discussing the simplicity of the righteous one. The tzaddik is an ordinary fellow like everyone else in many ways. He is distant from Torah and must descend to such simplicity. It is this simplicity that is an inspiration and relatable for everyone else. The tzaddik is so grand and yet equally available. The greatness of Abraham was despite his grand stature he was always welcoming to others. He opened his tent inviting anyone in. Samuel despite his stature trekked across the country to assist and inspire. To be a leader is to not always be the smartest guy in the room but to be the most liked and understood. This led to Rebbe Nachman’s famous never despair idea that can be assisted through the tzaddik. The tzaddik aids those struggling. It is through his greatness that others can break free and succeed in their struggle. 

While it is not entirely clear, it does seem this entire build up of the tzaddik status is to then apply the anti-despair proposal to the tzaddik as well. If the tzaddik is a simple Jew then he and other simple Jews also must not despair. What is incumbent on other Jews is incumbent on him. Yet further is the recognition that not everyone is on such a level. That not everyone will reach the level of the tzaddik let alone Moses. The ordinary person, the one who cannot shift back to tzaddik. The one who is stuck as a normal individual ought not to despair. He may not be able to learn but he is to strengthen himself through simple devotion. His simplicity will protect him. By mimicking the tzaddik who is ordinary as well, he can enhance his faith. He can enhance his conviction. It comes down to his will and his pride. There is no pit too deep, no abyss to long that he cannot recover. The tzaddik is his assistance out of the dark trouble. 

Rebbe Nachman locates the difficulties of faith and despair in the sophistication. In trying to deduce his faith. Using his noggin to be faithful. A possible jab at Maimonides, Rebbe Nachman instead imparts the struggler to trust plainly. Simply and easily. Yet it does seem that it is through the tzaddik that he can be redeemed. Not through his own word but the tzaddik’s prowess. There is a hint of Maimonides’ cling to those who know him but for Maimonides it was for direction not salvation. It is a little bit cryptic and ironically the only sentences not quoted. While he places the encouragement and even the potential salvation in the tzaddik’s hands the phrase is powerful. There is no despair. An enticing slogan. While a melody and a nice catchphrase, it is not entirely clear what he meant. He mentions the ordinary person not despair if he struggling but the phrase itself. Seemingly, it is as simplistic as the Rebbe pointed out at the beginning of the section. Never give up. If you fall get back up and continue moving forward returning to God in repentance. 

Drawing on the exceptional simplicity, it is not a foreign concept to today. A nice slogan for the self-help world but even more so on religious grounds. The difficulty with religion is triggering today. The Rav’s loneliness was not an absurd reaction to the fervent isolationism and the tragedies experienced his lifetime. The Rav like Rebbe Nachman expressed his emotion openly in his philosophical jargon. In the first pages of Lonely Man of Faith, the Rav reckons that he is lonely. A sentence primarily found in a diary hidden in a drawer. The Rav was straightforward with his audience. Knowing this would be published to the orthodox community in its seasonal newsletter. There is a part of the Rav’s words that still matter today. R Sacks pushed back not so long after and over time has modified his critique. His communitarian position as well as a growing community has salvaged much of that loneliness. Yet there is more to the puzzle than just being alone. The Rav’s idea on existential loneliness can be tied to the concept of a lost item. 

A lost item is generally in the realm of an object, the person themselves has become the object of concern. Looking internally they have reflected on their own situation. The existentialist motifs redirected the big questions from externally to internally. Introspection and questioning the self pondered one’s own existence in its regard. The questions were no longer about the logic of the world but the vitality of being. Even passing Kierkegaard, Camus and Sartre both developed personal explanations of society. Husserl challenged a more mathematical style but Heidegger refined it to a more anthropological domain. The psychological factors became more reverent as Freud and Jung became increasingly popular. The object concern was not logic or science but the human being himself. Cataloguing the essence of being was the grand magnum opus of Heidegger. Discussing the human condition began with the ambition and sensations in Nietzsche and Dostoevsky. While Camus and Sartre disagreed on the human condition they both spoke about it at length. 

Man being the subject of examination also made him the object of experimentation. Placed under a microscope and analysed. Yet beyond the existential themes of debate, what couldn’t be denied was the feelings. The experiences were on full display. The writings of Dostoevsky and Kafka prepared the era for the individualist  struggles. A time most prominent in the industrial age. A time that looked at man to deal with his problems. Man was no longer attached to his community and Sartre had argued years later existence preceded essence. One’s being was paramount on the hierarchy of the self. The product of the individual as a specimen of research is but recognising the depth of the human prowess. Yet it was in his desertion or even alienation from his traditional community that led to the internal chasm. Loneliness sponsored introspection and gripping a new prospect for a better tomorrow. Elevating the self in its self esteem. Yet it was also the failed serenity that brought upon these challenges. 

Existential angst is the trouble with newfound responsibility. The difficulties were built on the unknown of what was coming. Choices are now open and a maturity on the rise. Sartre locates despair in the conflict of identity in somewhat of a metaphysical recreation, Kierkegaard placed it more in the realm of divinity. His leap of faith was trying to overcome that despair. The lack of institutional communities to salvage the aid that forced belief. Now it had to be chosen. In the same vein, Jews as well now had to decide. They decided during Purim but as a community. With the breakdown of communities into rampant individualism or at least theoretically so, people on their own made their decisions. Deciding if they would wish to live a life of faith. The difficulties of life were not entirely bereft of value nor spirit. It was taught but a new beginning. One that needed to be confronted head on. Kierkegaard was of the first and others succeeded him. Though as existentialism grew other facets were focused upon whether in the economic or political realm. 

Interestingly, Kierkegaard saw great value in despair. Kierkegaard saw the despair as the developmental failure of the self. The person is in despair when their becoming is regressing. The human is ever evolving and not doing so is despair. Despair tells the person to fix something. It is an imbalance and misalignment. While Rebbe Nachman wouldn’t characterise despair as valuable, he does see it as a point to rectify and strengthen oneself. It is a pocket of recognised weakness that can be moulded. Both believe there is no reason to despair either because one needs to continue their journey or they need to pull themselves up. Camus took Kierkegaard a little further with acknowledging the despair as necessary for happiness. Without pain there is no joy somewhat assistive to Kohelet’s motto. Despair is but a reality and yet a way around it is to never give into it. There is no way to cancel it but reject the feeling. The mind sends the signal and the self responds positively to the change.  

The Rav believed Judaism was a ripe response to existentialism. The halakha can salvage the human condition. It is the Torah that defends him and elevates him. At the same time it throws him on the battlefield. He is forced to confront the despair and seclusion. The Rav building on earlier existential themes related how he saw the world. Judaism is the coerced element into the despair. Along the lines of Camus rather than Kierkegaard, the Rav finds despair as product of reality but something Judaism doesn’t shy away from. The Rav isn’t arguing for or against despair only that it is a part of existence. Rebbe Nachman turns despair into an emotion while the Rav sees it as an awareness. It is a point that the individual can overcome and continue forward. Acknowledging the human debt and disturbed suffering, it is evident that despair will arise in the human consciousness. Here it is imperative for man to engage and cope that which is horrible. Not necessarily to solve every issue but reckon with the troublesome reality. Improve creation but also answer the reality of suffering. 

The ultimate hope is to overcome the despair. Yet this despair is relevant to the sufferer who feels isolated. Who has spent time recollecting on his past. Rebbe Nachman was no stranger to suffering nor to isolation. Rebbe Nachman at times alienated himself. He became despondent but always attempted to rectify himself. To never be consumed with the dire offence of life’s struggle. On a halakhic level the subject can never become an object. The human can never become a lost item. Yet he can be lost. He can be searching endlessly hoping to find that which he is looking for. The optimism is endless but grim in desperate situations. The life of ease and communal comfort is given to the happy bunch. Rebbe Nachman even focuses on the basic difficulties of ignorance but does point out the need for simplicity to deal with the complexity of the world. The eastern mediative tactic condenses the confusion of reality to a the simplicity of breathing. Letting thoughts pass on and focus only on the breath. Life can wait, be in the moment. 

Do not despair due to simplisticity is a recipe for success in many areas. Yet not in all of them. The dominance of the industrial world alongside cruel conditioning can lead to despair. There is a mental health crisis in certain nations. Yet the existential dread lurks in the despair of the self. When one isolates from the community it is easy to despair and never be found. To be a zuto shel yam is to be so far out that any finder can claim it, if they find it. If they are able to retrieve it. A person who is lost may be too long gone and decide the despair is too grave. Rebbe Nachman’s teaching is quite the optimistic reaction to the realistic complexity. The difficulties with life. Despair doesn’t exist. It is a byproduct of neurological dissonance. The pain is grave the suffering is awful. It is easy for the brain to engrave despair into the forehead. The pain causes all the more self-pondering. Questioning one’s own limits and abilities. The self loses his dignity. He rescued from a thou to an it. He loses his own integrity and becomes an object of his own imagination. A psychosis that seeks to derail his life source. His protection is gone. He has deserted and is unable to be found. 

For the human, for the subject there can never be despair. On the metaphysical side, God has chosen and has yet to reclaim his ownership. One of the anti-suicide rationales is that the body is a divine gift. The despair is an internal miscommunication. A stain that can be cleansed with the correct contrast. On the practical side, despair is but the binary of opposites. There is joy and sorrow, despair and hope. Despair is the consequence of lacking hope. Of lacking any optimism. Such a feeling is a mental block on movement forward. It is being stuck walling off any possibility of persisting on. It is a self-cessation. It is tying a weight to an ankle. The mind panders the self with negative thoughts. Despair is but an emotionally constructed negativity. A reaction to a perceived injustice or imbalance. Everything is okay but instead despair sets in. Overanalysing that which isn’t true. A worrisome willy who has yet to come to terms with the situation. Despair can be felt but it is a mental game. It can be overcome with sheer will or mere deflection.

There are elements of despair that are but seemingly eternal. Despair after losing a loved one or suffering from a chronic illness. Optimism is not sought in rectifying but rather in coping with that which cannot be changed. Rebbe Nachman makes sense if evident psychological forces are merely mental games. They are real but they are also illusionary. They are concocted stimuli from the negative expression. Suffering relates to expectation and pain. The deeply unhappy is also the deeply disturbed and bothered. It is easy to run away and void the issue. Even despairing doesn’t solve the existential despair. The struggling coping mechanism either from emotional and/or physical pain cannot be rectified with a smile nor can be answered by desertion. The only way out is death. Unlike the mourner, the pained cannot easily push aside the awful experience. CIPA is a rare condition and even having it is heavily dangerous. Pain is a receptor to caution. Yet its persistence can be overwhelming and mentally draining. 

Despairing at the possibility of ever healing or ever being pain-free is the longing of the ill. There is only deal with it or death. Despair leads closer to death. Absent meaning vegetates the person. They are reduced to an object of their own incapability. There is little that can be done other than continue forward. Despair is to freeze and allow the monster to control. The goal is to recognise suffering but not despair. Suffering will burden but despair will crumble. The sufferer feels and acts but the despaired regresses into oblivion. He cannot be that which is acknowledged nor acclaimed. The difficulty is rather immense but the negation of despair allows life to be important. The pain will not cease but a healthy mind is a moving one. Cleansing despair does not obviate absurdist feelings nor dreadful sensations but it does elevate the positive bar. There is only one way. There is but forward. The subject remains in control and progress. Despair is a mentality. A strong unsettling mentality. On the other hand suffering is a condition that can be treated and tolerated. 

Despair is a consequence. Rebbe Nachman recognised its prevailing negativity and erased it from the physical world. It is a parasite seeking to derail the momentum. Suffering and pain are formidable but voiding despair helps the sufferer continuously develop. To hope for a better tomorrow.