Am I defined by my job, my mistakes, or my successes?

Rabbi Landau teaches that when someone asks who you are, you shouldn’t answer with your job. Most people say “I’m a teacher, I’m a dad, I’m a businesswoman.” His response: “That’s what you do, that’s not who you are.”

“Your actions are important, but they’re not your essence. The real you is deeper, untouchable, eternal.” If you were only your actions, he explains, you would be stuck forever. But you are not, and “that’s why you can reset.”

“You’re not your job, you’re not your mistakes, you’re not even your wins. You are a child of Hashem, part of Hashem, and that’s identity. No sin can erase that.” And once you know who you are, “what you did loses the power to define you.”

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

Surface claim

What you do is not who you are.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

If a person were only his actions, he would be stuck forever with his mistakes.

What may be behind it

Why do people confuse what they do with who they are?

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that people hang their identity on the garment and forget “that someone is standing underneath it.”

Deepest human truth

You are a child of Hashem, part of Hashem. No sin can erase that, and knowing it takes away the power of your past to define you.

More questions from this teaching

• Do my past mistakes define who I am?