Who am I really, beneath the masks I wear?

Rabbi Landau teaches that most people spend their whole life polishing the masks they wear, and they can leave the world without ever once touching their own soul. There are, he says, five versions of you.

First, who you want people to think you are. Second, who you think others think you are: the paranoia, the voices in your head. In fact, others aren’t thinking about you; they are stuck thinking about their own five versions of themselves. Third, who others think you are, which is projection, their filters and their jealousy, and is more about them than about you. Fourth, who you think you are: the ego, the doubts, the self-image.

And fifth: who are you really? “Tough question.” Rabbi Landau’s answer: “You’re not the mask, you’re not the stories, you’re not the noise. You’re a piece of Hashem, infinity itself, sent here to reveal the part of Him that no one else can.” So go live your mission, he says. “Be the one you really are.”

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

Surface claim

A person carries several versions of himself, and only one of them is real.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

Most people spend their lives polishing the mask and can leave the world without ever touching their soul.

What may be behind it

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that the problem is not the mask itself but how much we invest in it. When most of our strength goes into polishing it, little is left for the soul.

Deepest human truth

You are a piece of Hashem, sent to reveal the part of Him no one else can. Living your mission means living who you really are.

More questions from this teaching

• Why do I care so much about what other people think of me?