We don't need to be afraid of this day. The thirteenth of August, the beginning of the month of Elul is, for us, a wonderful day but many people have all kinds of fears of today and fears for tomorrow. And we have our superstitions and our superstitious rituals. Superstitions are expressions of our anxiety and I think most of us are not without some measure of anxiety. We all have our own fears and phobias and neurosis and defense mechanisms and ways of coping and ways of not coping so well.
Some people are afraid of heights.
Others could climb a mountain but would panic in a closed space. Some are fine with strangers as long as they remain strangers but they have a fear of intimacy. Some people have a fear of failure and some have a fear of success and some fear both and are almost paralyzed. If you're afraid of Friday the 13th, it only ruins a few days a year but some fears get in the way of every today and tomorrow in ways that impair our lives. Some fears get in the way more than others.