How much does your environment shape who you become?

Rabbi Landau answers by taking apart a popular saying. People say, “Eagles don’t fly with pigeons.” It’s a cute quote, he says, but it misses the point: eagles don’t choose their altitude. “They were born eagles. They don’t get credit for altitude, it’s instinct.” Humans are different. “We are the only creatures that can start as a pigeon and end up as an eagle.”

He cites the Rambam: you are not born good or bad, smart or foolish, pure or corrupt. “You become what your surroundings influence.” Environment is destiny. “If you stay around pigeons long enough, you’re going to forget you even have wings. You think small is normal, you’re going to mistake crumbs for feast.”

But the moment you lift yourself into a higher place, everything changes: “Your back straightens, your mind sharpens, and your soul remembers altitude.” In his words: “You were not born as an eagle, you were born changeable. Your destiny is not in your DNA.”

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

Surface claim

A person is not born an eagle or a pigeon. He becomes what his surroundings shape.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

Stay around small thinking long enough and you start to think small is normal, mistaking crumbs for a feast.

What may be behind it

What is greatness worth if you were born with it?

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that the eagle “earned no credit for how wide its wings spread,” and that the ability to change is exactly what makes a human being greater than every other creature.

Deepest human truth

A human being was born changeable. Placed among greatness, his soul remembers altitude.

More questions from this teaching

• Are people born good or bad?