What decides whether something in my life is a blessing or a curse?

Rabbi Landau teaches that “your eyes are lying to you. They're not cameras. They don't show you reality, they paint it.” That is why two people can live through the same story and walk away in two different worlds.

He asks: when you look at a closed door, is it rejection or is it direction? When you face a struggle, is it darkness or a new light? The moment you see a curse, it is a curse. And the moment you see a blessing, it is actually a blessing.

He reads the verse “Re'eh anochi nosen lifneichem hayom brachah u'klalah,” “See, I place before you today a blessing and a curse,” and notes that its first word is “See.” Hashem has already placed blessing and curse before you, but “they're not two separate things. They're the exact same thing, just with a different face.” The only thing that determines which face you see is your vision.

“Life isn't happening to you. Life is happening to your eyes.” And he adds a warning: “if you refuse to see, the world will show you, and it might not be as pretty.”

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

Surface claim

Your eyes don't record reality; they paint it. The same event can look like a blessing or a curse.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

A closed door feels like rejection and a struggle feels like darkness, unless a person learns to see them differently.

What may be behind it

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau points to the spies: the same land and the same grapes, yet ten saw a curse and Caleb and Joshua saw a blessing. The land did not change; the seeing changed.

Deepest human truth

Hashem places one reality before us with two faces. Life isn't happening to you; it is happening to your eyes.

More questions from this teaching

• Is a closed door in my life a sign of rejection?