When a dragon shows up one morning at the Bixbee house, Billy wants to care for it, but his mother insists that it doesn\u2019t even exist. Yet the more she tries to ignore the dragon, the larger the creature grows.\u00a0 What do you think?\u00a0 Was there or wasn\u2019t there a dragon?\u00a0 Is there such a thing as a\u00a0 dragon?<\/p>\n
What is the most effective way of dealing with a problem: to divert one\u2019s attention from it, or to deal with it directly?\u00a0 Through various interpretations of the biblical verse: \u201cDa\u2019aga b\u2019lev ish yesachena\u201d\u00a0 (\u201cIf there is concern in a man\u2019s heart, let him cast it down\u201d, Proverbs, ch. 12, verse 25), we shall see how Chazal, our wise men of long ago, suggested that we cope with concerns and fears.<\/p>\n
Da\u2019aga b\u2019lev – ish yesachena <\/em><\/strong>(\u201cIf there is concern in a man\u2019s heart, let him cast it down\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n We all have our worries. At times we keep them buried inside our hearts and wait for them to pass, while at other times we wish to share them with someone, but others aren\u2019t always free or open to hear about them.\u00a0 Often when others aren\u2019t available for listening, worries have the tendency to\u00a0 grow larger, to intensify more and more, until finally there is no way to ignore them.<\/p>\n In the Book of Proverbs it is written: \u201cIf there is concern in a man\u2019s heart, let him cast it down\u201d (Proverbs, ch. 12, verse 25). Two wise people tried to understand the intention of the verse. Rav\u00a0 Ami said: When there is anxiety in a man\u2019s heart, he should quash it or divert it from his thoughts.\u00a0 He should busy himself with a different activity and so he will forget about his worries. Rav Asi\u00a0 thinks exactly the opposite: When there is anxiety in a person\u2019s heart he should talk about it with someone else, and in that way he will succeed in overcoming it (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin, p.100, side 2).<\/p>\n What do you think? Is diverting a person\u2019s attention to something else the best way of coping with anxieties, as exemplified by Billy’s mother’s behavior? Or perhaps one should talk about them, as Billy tries to do, before the problem grows to \u201cdragon proportions\u201d?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":61776,"menu_order":7,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"agegroup":[767],"book-subject":[1130],"distribution_year":[1047],"class_list":["post-71198","book","type-book","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","agegroup-preschool-3-5","book-subject---en-2","distribution_year-2011-2012"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n