Why does routine make people stop growing?

Rabbi Landau teaches that routine is not neutral. “The routine that you got used to is where your dreams go to die.” People stop growing, he says, “not because they are lazy, but because [routine] feels safe, comfortable, predictable. So they repeat yesterday again and again until they are gone.”

He draws on the verse in the Navi Zechariah, “I will give you places to walk among these who stand.” An angel is one who stands. “He stands. He doesn’t change.” A human is one who walks: “he walks, he moves, he falls, gets up and keeps going. That’s your greatness.”

“You were not created to repeat, you were created to discover. Don’t chase what you know, chase what you don’t.” In his words: “Angels stand still, humans walk. Only the brave ones arrive.”

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

Surface claim

If you are not moving, you are not alive. Routine is where dreams go to die.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

People cling to routine because it is safe, comfortable, and predictable.

What may be behind it

Isn’t standing still a kind of perfection?

For an angel, yes. In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that an angel’s completeness “is also his ceiling,” and for a human being, standing still “is a kind of death.”

Deepest human truth

A human being was created to walk: to move, fall, get up, and discover. That is his greatness.

More questions from this teaching

• What is the difference between angels and human beings?