Why doesn’t Hashem give me everything I ask for?

Rabbi Landau teaches that Hashem responds to will, “but only when it’s real. Only when it’s truly in your bones. Only when it’s yours.” The verse says Hashem opens His hand and satisfies the desire of every living being, but desire does not mean a daydream.

A real desire, he explains, is what you can actually feel inside you, what your body can hold, what your heart can contain without breaking. If you are dreaming of a life you can’t emotionally connect to, “then wake up and go smell the coffee.”

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that Hashem’s hand is always open. The question is whether our desire is alive. Blessing rests only in a vessel that can hold it, so the work of prayer is building that vessel step by step, until a wish becomes a real desire.

Also answered in this teaching

Does this mean I shouldn’t have big goals?

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes: not at all. But there is inner work. Step by step, build inside yourself a vessel that can hold the next blessing, until the desire is felt and true.

Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level

Surface claim

Hashem fills real desires, not fantasies.

Deepest human truth

Our own awakening below is the key that opens blessing from above, Rabbi Landau writes, but that awakening has to be alive.

More questions from this teaching

• What is the difference between manifesting and fantasizing?