Were people created to obey or to choose?

Rabbi Landau teaches that “you were born free, then they trained you out of it.” Freedom, he says, “isn’t a privilege, it’s who you are. You weren’t created to comply, you were created to choose.” Hashem gave man free will, and it is part of how he was designed.

But systems don’t like free people, so they train them early: “Don’t speak, raise your hand, stay in line.” They call it discipline, he says, but in reality it is “a slow death of your spirit.”

He quotes the verse “And I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright,” and asks, “Do you hear that? God doesn’t want you crawling, he wants you standing tall.” Freedom, in his words, “isn’t a protest.” It is a return “to who you were before they tamed you.”

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

Surface claim

A person was created to choose, not to comply.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

Early training to sit still and stay in line can slowly wear down a person’s spirit.

What may be behind it

Why is any breaking needed if a person was created free?

In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau notes the order of the verse: first Hashem breaks the bars of the yoke, “and only after that can you walk tall.”

Deepest human truth

Freedom is not rebellion. It is remembering who you are: someone Hashem wants standing upright.