What does “whoever chases honor, honor runs from him” mean?
By Rabbi Shalom Landau.
Rabbi Landau explains the Sages' saying, “Kol harodef achar hakavod, hakavod bore'ach mimenu,” as a rule that goes far beyond honor. “Whoever chases honor, the honor's gonna run from him. Everything's gonna run from him.”
In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau gives a picture. A cup does not chase water; it places itself under the faucet. A magnet does not chase iron; its nature draws the iron in. So it is with a person: the more whole he becomes inside, the more the things he was searching for move toward him on their own.
He cites the verse “All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you.” When a person walks his right path, the blessings do the running. As he puts it, chasing pushes things away, and becoming pulls them in.
Related concepts: Success · Mindset
In A Soul at Peace: On Chasing and Becoming
Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level
Surface claim
Whatever you chase runs away; whatever you become ready for comes to you.
Deepest human truth
A cup under the faucet does not need to run after the water.
More questions from this teaching
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