Torah from Rabbanim w Yirat Shamaym

ACTIONS to do when feeling sense of fear / danger

אם ירצה ה׳

When faced with a sense of foreboding or fear caused by evil spirits or demons one's own wicked thoughts, speech and deeds engendered, Ben Yehoyada on Megillah 3a as also taught by Rav Avigdor Miller ztl offer practical guidance on how to respond.

A) If There Is Space to Jump

Jump Four Cubits: If one is in a place of fear, they should jump four cubits (6 feet or 1.8 meters) from their position. This act is significant because within four cubits is considered one domain, while beyond that is another domain. By jumping, one enters a new space where they need not be concerned about the evil spirits.

The Holy Ari ztl teaches that the forces of evil imitate human actions. If a person merely distances themselves by walking away, the evil spirits can follow. Therefore, mighty jumping is advised. The jump should be made with all one's strength. The evil spirits, seeing this exertion, will also jump but will not match the distance, massively overshoot, allowing the person to separate from them significantly.

Ben Yehoyada Megillah 3a:6

the reason they said to jump and did not say to distance oneself by four cubits is that they devised a clever way to save him from the spirits through the act of jumping from his place. It is known from what our teacher, the Ari, wrote that the forces of evil (סיטרא אחרא) desire to imitate holiness like a monkey before a person, meaning that the monkey's nature is to act like a human being when it sees one. Therefore, the spirits, which are rooted in the forces of evil, also have this nature of the monkey to perform actions that humans do in order to imitate them. Consequently, this person who is frightened seems to have spirits standing close to him. If he merely distances himself and walks away from that place, they will also follow him, and what benefit will the distancing provide?

Therefore, they advised him to jump four cubits, as this jump will be significant and strong according to his capacity, and he must jump with all his strength. The spirits, who are accustomed to imitating the actions of humans, will also jump and leap with all their strength when they see him exerting himself to jump with all his might. The spirit, according to its strength, will jump a great distance, and it is possible that it will be far away, as the strength of the spirit in jumping will certainly be very great. Since he will uproot himself, he will find himself separated and distanced from them by a significant & vast measure

B) If There Is No Space to Jump

In situations where one cannot jump, **say

"The goat of the slaughterhouse is fatter than I am"
עיזא דבי טבחי שמינא מינאי**

Ben Yehoyada Megillah 3a:7

And if not, let us say this: 'The goat of the butchers is fat.' This means that if there is no place to jump because he is standing in a small, closed room, and it is a filthy place where he cannot recite the Shema, then let us say this. And we need to understand why it mentions goats and not sheep, since sheep are more commonly found to be fatter than goats.

It seems to me, with G'd's help, that it is stated in the new Zohar, Parashat Toldot (Zohar Chadash 33b), 'Come and see that this was hinted to Abraham with the lambs of the flock and not with goats, because sheep are from the side of kindness, and Abraham is united with the distribution of the attribute of kindness. Therefore, we learn that one who permits himself to be in a place of kindness is not in danger forever, but if he permits himself to be in a place of goats, he will encounter many harsh judgments.' Look there.

And therefore, it is written in the Book of Kohelet that a person should not raise a goat in his house. And this clarifies the reason here that it says 'the goats of the butchers,' etc., because the goats, since they are from the forces of judgment, the spirits desire to cling to and attach themselves to goats more. Therefore, one who wishes to distance the spirits from himself indicates to them a place on the goats, for their desire and craving for them is greater. Thus, it says 'of the butchers,' because in these there is a greater desire for them to cling to, as the butchers' place is where the judgment is enacted through slaughter.

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