Conquering Fear

Conquering Fear: Living Boldly in an Uncertain Time, by Rabbi Harold Kushner, A.A. Knopf, New York, NY, 2009.
Reviewed by Rabbi Dr. Yaakov Thompson
In his new book Rabbi Harold Kushner confronts an age old human problem with which man still struggles in the twenty first century: the fear of uncertainty. While we live in a time in which technology makes our lives more comfortable than ever, we, like those before us, live in a time in which there is little that we can take for granted. Today’s “sure thing” can still become a bad decision. We can predict the weather but remain helpless in the face of nature. We have better medical care than ever but still worry that illness may strike us. More profoundly, Kushner’s monograph reminds us that it can take very little to shake our faith in the future. Should that happen we are destined to live with the worst disease that can strike the human heart- deep personal fear of what tomorrow may bring.
While “fear” may be a rather nebulous “boogeyman,” the author reminds us that some of our fears are unfounded and irrational. These can be dealt with by a simple dose of logic. After all, air travel really is safer than car travel, natural disasters are actually “rare” in their occurrence, and sometimes we are just afraid of being afraid. There are, however, some real fears that we all share. Some are specific to this moment. Terrorism is a fear that we, as Americans, have never had to face before. It is the twenty first century version of the fear of the dark. The fear of the unknown that threatens us without warning- we just can’t see it coming. We conquer this fear when we go on with our daily lives, while we continue to travel, while we reaffirm that, in the end, evil will consume itself.
Moving to fears that touch us more intimately, Kushner notes that many of us may fear change. Now, more than any time in history, the world moves faster than we can fathom- invoking the now rather mild image of “future shock,” he notes that many of us are suspicious and fearful of new technologies. The new possibilities for good make us worry about the new possibilities for evil. To live boldly is to embrace and recognize change. We are comfortable with the present moment but to live as if nothing changes is not realistic. None of us can function at our best when we feel the ground under us in constant motion – but we can boldly claim those things that are unchanging: the human need for mentoring, parenting, and love.
Writing just last year, Kushner also reflects on the economy, corporate downsizing, and the fear of job loss. He reminds us that some of these fears are larger than life itself because we sometimes confuse our jobs, our economic worth, with our human worth. To lose a job is not to lose one’s identity or one’s humanity. In fact, he poses, it might be a new chance to rediscover one’s worth. Living with courage means seeing past the grief and anger of loss. It means having a vision of who you will be when you emerge on the other side.
As a Jew I find Kushner’s work to be a great resource. In very human terms it reminds me that “living boldly” is a mitzvah. God intends for us to live with courage not with fear. Over and over again our sacred literature affirms that life is a process that unfolds between the polarities of human experience. We all live between moments of hope and moments of despair, between moments in which we feel connected to every other life in the universe and moments in which we feel desperately alone. In every circumstance it is within our power to conquer fear, to choose hope, and to create a future as we envision it to be.