Why does the ego cause so much inner pain?

Rabbi Landau teaches that “your ego is the root of all psychological problems.” Imagine a world where you don't exist, “not your name, not your role, not your story.” In that world, he says, you will see there are no psychological problems.

“So why keep feeding the very thing that caused the pain?” His point is that the ego “is just your imagination of yourself.” It is not something that can be touched, described, or even truly experienced. “It's a ghost, a fiction, a story you made up.”

He finds this in the Torah: anochi omed bein Hashem u'veineichem, “I stand between Hashem and you.” “It's the Anochi, the I, that stands between you and God.” So, he concludes, “you don't need to fix your ego. You need to realize it was never real to begin with.”

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

Surface claim

The ego is the root of psychological problems.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

Why do the same struggles keep coming back?

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes, citing the Tanya, that arrogance, anger, and sadness are branches of one root, the feeling of a separate “I.” Cut off one branch and the root remains.

What may be behind it

The ego is only “your imagination of yourself,” a story you made up, yet people keep feeding it.

Deepest human truth

The “I” is what stands between a person and God. The work is not to fix it, but to realize it was never real to begin with.

More questions from this teaching

• What does “I stand between Hashem and you” teach about the ego?