Passover and the Crisis of Jewish Identity
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Rumination keeps us trapped in yesterday and afraid of tomorrow. Jewish wisdom suggests a better response.
As I walked out of the conference room after a recent job interview, I felt a familiar sinking feeling—the quiet sting of wounded pride.
“Good luck,” the CEO said politely as we shook hands and said goodbye.
I already knew how it had gone. I had stumbled over one of the final questions and it was hard to imagine a job offer coming my way.
On the walk home, I kept replaying the interview, reconstructing the perfect answers, and spiraling into anxious thoughts about how competitive the job market is. I couldn’t believe that after making it all the way to a final interview I’d have to start over once again.
That mental loop has a name. Psychologists call it rumination: the habit of reliving the past and worrying about the future, even when neither is actually in our control. It rarely helps. More often, it keeps us agitated and stuck.
The Jewish sage Maimonides offers a different way of relating to moments like this.
In his words, a person should thank and praise God for the past, and cry out to God for the future.
Put simply, the past is for gratitude and the future is for asking for help.
Let’s unpack how this teaching can help quiet anxious thoughts.
Based on the Talmud, Maimonides writes in the laws of blessings, alongside daily practices meant to cultivate awareness and gratitude, that a person must bless God for bad news just as they bless Him for good news (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Blessings, 10:3).
This does not mean that good news and bad news feel the same. Maimonides is not asking us to experience joy in disappointment. He is asking us to relate to whatever occurred with a posture that allows you to move forward rather than remain trapped in it.
After my interview, the outcome was no longer in my hands. Whether the eventual news would be encouraging or disappointing, the moment itself had already passed.
If good news arrives, bless God with gratitude—ha-tov ve-ha-meitiv, Blessed is the One Who is good and does good. If bad news arrives, bless God as the true Judge—Baruch dayan ha-emet.
In both cases, the blessing performs the same subtle task. It prevents the mind from reopening the past as a problem to be solved. The event is named, received, and given closure.
Without such a practice, disappointment easily turns into incessant rumination, beating yourself up and fixating on what you should have done differently. It leaves no room for productive introspective that enables you to learn from your mistakes and move on.
There is a difference between learning from the past and anxious looping.
Healthy reflection has an endpoint. You extract the lesson, adjust your behavior, and then allow the moment to settle into the past. Rumination has no endpoint. It replays the same scene without producing growth—only agitation.
At the same time, unacknowledged moments of joy pass just as quickly, barely registered before the mind moves on to the next demand or worry.
A blessing interrupts that cycle. It does not deny the pain or pretend the outcome was good. But it does bring the argument with the past to an end.
If blessings teach you how to relate to what has already happened, Maimonides is just as clear about what to do with what has not yet occurred.
In the same section about blessings, he writes that when it comes to future possibilities, a person should cry out to God, ask for mercy, and pray. The future, in other words, is not something to be endlessly fantasize or worry about. It is something to be held with trust and faith.
Most anxiety lives in the future tense. What if I don’t get another interview? What if things don’t work out? You repeat this pattern as if compulsive overthinking can sway the future into your desired direction.
Modern research on anxiety suggests the opposite. Repetitive “what if” thinking keeps the brain’s threat system activated. The body responds to imagined scenarios as if they were already unfolding, generating stress without solving the uncertainty.
Maimonides’ approach does not deny uncertainty, nor does it demand passivity. You prepare, you plan, and you act responsibly. But once you reach the edge of what is in your hands, the remainder belongs in prayer.
Regarding the outcome of my job interview, I can bless what has already happened, learn from it with honesty, and let it pass. And as I face what lies ahead, I can pray for wisdom and courage — while accepting that control over results was never fully mine to begin with.
That is a Jewish path towards inner peace.
This is a very good article except that two points are missing: There is much evidence that anxiety is at least a partial product of physical discomfort, aka chronic physical pain. Successfully treating physical pain may be one of the best cures for anxiety.
The other is that some people will dismiss this advice because it is their habit of dismissing other opinions, even the opinions of Maimonides. How to reach and help them is the greatest challenge. Shalom.
Great and very well thought-out post!
SHA (LO) M = SHAM LO (His Name)
Let me suggest giving some credit to Hashem and to others, all the time
Perhaps we can find more Peace / Shalom if we try to give more credit
Thanks for sharing, but perhaps there can be follow ups.
For example, after the job interview you might be able to interact with the interviewer,
or what have you. Life does not have to be a stage performance...
DANCE or TRANCE?
Perhaps, we should see our moments like a dance, from place to place,
back and forth. Yes, the past moves are over, but we can retrace the patterns,
and improve the SONG and the DANCE of life, perhaps adding joy and humor,
step by step, day by day, Yom, yom... Much thanks
Simple and to the point Torah perspective! I needed this! Thank you!
Very good article. I tend to ruminate about the past and then get depressed about things I can't change, and this piece was helpful in showing me how to overcome that habit. Thank you.
"But, ach, I backward cast my eye on prospects drear,
And forward, though I cannot see, I guess - and fear."
Robert Burns, "To a Mouse"
❤️
A great Torah based perspective given over so clearly and effectively, the next step, applying it 🙂 Thank you
Very helpful and inspiring take on anxiety. I struggle with rumination, so was nice to see a Jewish-inspired take on it.