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I wish people knew how DEPRESSION really works...
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Rabbi Josh Zebberman on calming down people who feel overwhelmed with problems.
Categories:Torah
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Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
one of the worst things you can do to
somebody who's going through a difficult
time is say hey why don't we talk about
it because when somebody is suffering
when somebody's going through pain what
is talking about that pain going to do
that's going to create rumination either
consciously or subconsciously that's
going to deepen the pain that's going to
make things worse that's what language
does because language reinforces the
reality that we're experiencing that the
reality that we have within ourselves
the Rous says when somebody's angry
don't talk about the anger at that
moment right always says when somebody's
decease is in front of them don't try to
comfort them at that moment I'm not
saying that you shouldn't be supportive
to somebody who is suffering and you
definitely should empathize with
somebody who's suffering but you don't
have to get them to
elaborate on the pain that they're in
when somebody talks about pain they feel
pain more
when somebody talks about hope they feel
more
hope and having a conversation about
that can be very helpful I was once uh
counseling a couple and the truth is I
do this all the time when I counsel
couples I say so what are your best
hopes from our discussion and sometimes
they'll say well look this is the issues
we're going through and we're fighting
about this and that and I'll say look it
that must be really difficult and really
uncomfortable and I'm sorry that you
felt hurt when this and this happened
but if this was a useful discussion and
you walked out of here and things were
like super successful how would you know
like what can you dream for what are
your best hopes and when they have a
conversation about what they hope for it
it gets
reinforced when you talk about problems
and I I'm not saying that we should be
problem phobic and that we should be
afraid of listening to people's problems
no we should be very EMP pathetic but if
we talk too much about problems we
reinforce problematic behavior when we
talk more about hope we reinforce
hopeful Behavior essentially people have
within
themselves the ability to shine the
ability to
persevere and we see this by the way in
the paraa of amalik the amalekites
trying to kill us in the Bible in the
Torah this unprovoked attack against our
identity but sometimes we feel like our
positive identity the identity we're
most proud of the version of oursel that
we want to share with others gets
robbed and you can call this depression
anxiety
trauma it could be for external causes
as well but sometimes we feel that our
identity is being
robbed so the Torah says you got to
fight amalik you got to fight this
negative Force within you and how do we
do that MOA Renu chooses people to fight
this war if you were chosen by MOA Renu
if you were chosen by Moses to fight a
war what quality would you want to
believe that you had that you're worth
being chosen by Moses think about
that what makes you so special that
you're chosen by Moses try to identify
with that quality I want you to imagine
this right now as you're watching this
video Mishu chooses you to fight the
Battle of God to protect the Jewish
people you have a soul within yourself
that needs to be protected and if moeru
chose you what do you think that quality
would be write it in the comment section
as well I'd love to hear what your
thoughts are the Torah tells us that at
this battle mosu would raise his hands
and when his hands were up the battle
was successful and when his hands were
down they were losing the battle it
says they were successful when he lifted
his hands they were successful they were
winning they were
victorious when his hands were down they
were not
successful why what is significant about
moo lifting up his hands giving the
Jewish people the ability to fight so
Rashi interprets it as a sign he's
reminding us look to the heavens
understand where your success comes from
but I want to share with you an Al
alterate interpretation
from the he explains that y the hand is
a euphemism for strength the hand of God
like the ram tells us when it says the
hand of God it's an anthropomorphic
metaphor not that God actually has a
hand because God Is Not a Human Being
God is the creator of human beings but
God is Way Beyond that and is not
limited to a specific form when the
Torah says the hand of God it means the
strength in this case also when my lifts
up his hand when you have strength and
like you take advantage of it you lift
it up you take that strength within you
that God has given you to persevere to
shine and to fight and to win and to be
the best version of yourself and to show
up in the way that you're most proud of
the way that God is most proud of you
take your hand and you lift it up you
actually take advantage of it you take
the strength that God has given you
within you find it and you take
advantage of it you can be very
successful but if you neglect it you
just put it down you put down your
strength and you wallow in your pain and
you just want to talk about problems but
not actually talk about the hope that
you have the strength that God has given
you it's very difficult to win a Malik
but friends we can win this amalik aik
does not have to Rob us or abduct us of
our selfworth abduct us of the value
that we have the god-given value that we
have God has given us this value and we
can pick it up and the very first step
is to notice
it and it it's ironic but noticing the
value God has given us within
ourselves it's ironic but it requires a
lot of
humility because our self-made
worth has its limitations and we could
put doubts on it but the god-given worth
that we have
takes a lot of humility to step aside
and say I know it's there friends you
got this that's my story and I'm stick
into it