The Trap of "Blackness": How Emunah Pulls You Out of the Pit of Despair

The Strategy of the Enemy

The Rebbe warned: depression and "blackness" are not natural states of the soul. G-d created the soul bright, joyful, striving toward life and toward Him. Despair is a strategic ploy of the yetzer hara (the evil inclination), whose goal is to blind a person's mind and render them incapable of fulfilling their mission in this world. When a person sinks into melancholy, they stop praying with fire, stop studying Torah with joy, stop helping others, and stop seeing meaning in their life. This is exactly what the yetzer hara seeks to achieve. Time lost in sadness cannot be returned — every minute of despair is a stolen minute of life, a minute in which a person could have fulfilled a commandment, spoken a kind word, or supported another. The Rebbe urged us to recognize: despair is not your state — it is an attack by the enemy.

The Remedy Is in Action

The Rebbe often repeated: "The main thing is action." Do not wait for inspiration, do not wait until "it gets easier," do not wait for the perfect moment. Act "through force" — literally make yourself get up, get dressed, leave the house, and do at least something good. One small deed has infinite value because it is performed in defiance of darkness. It is precisely in an action performed through overcoming that a special power resides — light born from darkness is brighter than any other light. Each small step disperses the inner darkness, like a candle disperses the gloom of a room. You need not wait until you "feel" joy — begin to act, and joy will come on its own, just as warmth comes from movement.

Focus on Others

The Rebbe revealed the root of despair: it is born from excessive self-focus — on one's own problems, one's own failures, one's own suffering. When the world narrows to the size of one's own "self," the darkness becomes unbearable. The best remedy is to shift focus to the needs of the community, to helping other people. Helping others is the fastest exit from a personal crisis. When you help another person, a miracle occurs: your own pain recedes, because the soul remembers its true purpose — not to close in upon itself, but to bring light into the world. The Rebbe advised: if you are struggling, find someone who is struggling even more and help them. This remedy works without fail.