Lesson 018 · posted Thu Sep 3 2026
Having a Terrible Day?
What Judaism says about getting through today: five ideas, each with its source.
What the tradition says about getting through today. Bad days end. That is their one rule. You have survived every single one so far.
- 1
This too shall pass.
גם זה יעבור“Gam zeh ya'avor.”Jewish folk tale of Solomon's ring
The old tale gives King Solomon a ring engraved with three words for bad days and good. This too shall pass. It is not comfort. It is a fact about time, and it works in both directions. Today is not permanent. Neither was the good day.
- 2
The sun rises anyway.
וזרח השמש“The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.”Ecclesiastes 1:5
Tomorrow is not a hope. It is a schedule. Ecclesiastes is blunt about it: the sun does not check how your day went. Whatever this is, it has a deadline, and the deadline is sunrise.
- 3
One small thing. Now.
אם לא עכשיו“If not now, when?”Pirkei Avot 1:14
On a terrible day the whole plan is too heavy. One act is not. Hillel does not ask you to fix your life. He asks you what you can do in the next minute. Do that. Then the next one.
- 4
Joy is a practice, not a mood.
מצוה גדולה“It is a great mitzvah to be in joy always.”Likutei Moharan II, 24
Rebbe Nachman was not describing how he felt. He was prescribing something to do. Joy in his teaching is an act you perform against the day, the way you take medicine against a fever. You do not wait to feel it.
- 5
Morning is coming.
בבוקר רנה“Weeping may lodge for the night, but joy comes in the morning.”Psalm 30:6
The night gets a room. It does not get the house. The Psalm makes grief a guest with a checkout time. You are allowed to have the whole night. You are not required to give it tomorrow.
Bad days end. That is their one rule.
You have survived every single one so far.
Save this for the next one. Send it to whoever is having theirs today.
Sources
- Jewish folk tale of Solomon's ring
- Ecclesiastes 1:5 on Sefaria
- Pirkei Avot 1:14 on Sefaria
- Likutei Moharan II, 24 on Sefaria
- Psalm 30:6 on Sefaria
Art on the slides: Nicolas Poussin, Blind Orion Searching for the Rising Sun (1658) · Camille Pissarro, The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning (1897) · Alfred Sisley, Rue Eugène Moussoir at Moret: Winter (1891) · Georges Seurat, The Forest at Pontaubert (1881) · Paul Cézanne, Rocks at Fontainebleau (1890s) · Camille Pissarro, The Garden of the Tuileries on a Winter Afternoon (1899) · Camille Pissarro, Jalais Hill, Pontoise (1867). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, open access.