What should I do when a door closes on me?

Rabbi Landau teaches that the famous line “when one door closes, five other doors open” is cute, but wrong. A door is meant to open and close; that is what a door is. So if a door shuts on you, don’t chase five new doors. “Grab the handle and open it.”

But if it’s a wall, it won’t open no matter how much you pull, push and bang. As he puts it, your forehead isn’t a key.

Here is where people ruin their lives, he says. They walk away from doors the second they close, as if they were walls. Or worse, “they bleed on a wall thinking it’s just a stubborn door.” The truth is that life isn’t about five new doors. It’s about knowing the difference between a door and a wall. “And by the way, with the right tools, you can actually remove walls.”

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

Surface claim

A closed door is meant to be opened again; the real skill is telling a door from a wall.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

People give up on doors as if they were walls, or bleed themselves dry on walls as if they were stubborn doors.

What may be behind it

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that when a person is full of himself, every obstacle feels like a personal challenge to break through, and the wall stops looking like a wall.

Deepest human truth

Even a wall is not the end. With the right tools, Rabbi Landau says, walls can be removed.

More questions from this teaching

• How can I tell whether an obstacle is a closed door or a wall?