What does “widen your mouth and I will fill it” mean?

Rabbi Landau explains the verse “Harchev picha va'amaleihu,” widen your mouth and I will fill it, as Hashem's promise: “You expand your desire, I'll expand your delivery.” The widening is our part; the filling is His.

It rests on how he understands blessing. Hashem created a world of abundance, but “he only gives vessel that can hold the blessings.” So He plants desire in a person, “not to tease you, but to shape you.” Following that desire with faith and work is how the vessel grows, until “you become someone heaven can trust with more.”

That is why he says financial desire is not a test. “He gave it to direct you,” and as much desire as you have, that is part of your mission.

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that “open wide” is a command to do inner work: widen your vessel by working on your character traits and building your trust in Hashem. The blessing is always there, but it flows only into a vessel that is ready to receive it. He also calls giving charity “open wide” in actual practice.

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

Surface claim

Hashem's promise is that if you expand the desire, He expands the delivery.

Underlying need or longing

Desire for more is planted to shape a person into a vessel that can hold blessing.

What may be behind it

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that a vessel does not come down from Heaven ready-made. It is built along the way, through work on oneself.

Deepest human truth

The blessing is never missing; it waits for a vessel ready to receive it. You widen, and Hashem fills.

More questions from this teaching

• Is it wrong to want more money?