Does “my strength and the power of my hand” apply to spiritual achievements too?
By Rabbi Shalom Landau.
Rabbi Landau teaches that the Torah's warning, kochi v'otzem yadi, “my strength, my power, that's what got me here,” is not only about money and business. “It applies just as much to” ruchniyus, the spiritual life.
When a person says “it's my davening, my kesher,” or credits his holiness or his special connection, he is “still in the same trap.” In Rabbi Landau's words, “You just wrapped your ego in a tallis.” The pride has simply changed clothes.
In A Soul at Peace, he notes that the Torah says “lest you say in your heart,” not with your mouth. It is a quiet inner whisper, and because it looks like faith rather than arrogance, it is harder to catch. The answer is to remember who gave it: Hashem gave it to you because He chose to, and because your mission needs you.
Related concepts: Selfawareness · Spirituality
In A Soul at Peace: “My Own Strength,” Dressed in Holiness
Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level
Surface claim
Kochi v'otzem yadi applies to spiritual success as much as to material success.
What may be behind it
In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau calls this “holy ego”: a refined ego that says, “I serve Hashem, so I deserve this.”
Deepest human truth
Nothing we receive is owed to us; Hashem gives because He chooses and because our mission still needs us.
More questions from this teaching
More answers: Faith, Providence, and the Jewish Destiny · All questions · Questions about Rabbi Landau and Rivnitz