A powerful message of chizuk delivered by Rav Baruch Rosenblum during the ongoing “Shaagas HaAri” war has gone viral in recent days, offering encouragement and perspective to many facing the current security situation.

The noted maggid shiur reflects on the familiar words from Tehillim, “L’Dovid Hashem ori v’yishi,” asking why people often feel secure during ordinary times yet become gripped by fear when war breaks out.

Rav Rosenblum explains that under normal circumstances people go to sleep at night or leave for Shacharis without thinking twice about their safety. There is no sense that they must say goodbye to family members or prepare for danger.

“You don’t say to your wife, ‘If I don’t come back, raise the children on the path of Torah,’” he notes.

The reason, he explains, is simple faith in the words Hashem ma’oz chayai, mimi efchad — that Hashem is the strength of our lives and there is no one to fear.

The difference, he says, is that people perceive a gap between times of calm and times of war.

“What is chanayah?” Rav Rosenblum asks. “It’s a regular day, a pleasant atmosphere. You wake up in the morning and everything is working, baruch Hashem. You feel calm because everything is fine.”

Quoting the words of Dovid Hamelech, he explains: “Im tachaneh alai machaneh lo yira libi.” On an ordinary day, when life feels stable, a person does not feel afraid.

“But what happens when war rises against me? B’zos ani votei’ach. What is that zos? The same zos of the machaneh.”

Rav Rosenblum stresses that the Ribbono Shel Olam does not change. The same Hashem who is present with us during times of calm is also present with us in the midst of war.

To illustrate the idea, he recounts a story about the Gerrer Rebbe, the Imrei Emes. The Rebbe was once traveling in a wagon when the horses suddenly began racing toward a steep drop. While the chassidim around him panicked and cried out in fear, the Rebbe remained completely calm.

Rav Rosenblum explains the lesson: “Someone who feels secure only when the ground beneath him is straight will panic when the ground becomes crooked. But someone who walks calmly because the Ribbono Shel Olam is with him — that same Ribbono Shel Olam is with him even when the ground becomes crooked.”

He concludes with the example of Yonah Hanavi, who was able to sleep in the depths of the ship during a violent storm. When asked how he could sleep amid such danger, Yonah answered that the One who created the sea also created the land, and the One who protects a person when the ground is stable protects him when the sea is raging.

Rav Rosenblum’s message for these wartime days is clear: people must follow all safety instructions and do what is required, but they should do so without panic.

“We have to do what needs to be done, and we must follow the instructions,” he says. “But not with fear and not with dread — rather with calmness and confidence.”

{Matzav.com}