It Is Not in Heaven
The Torah says: “It is not in heaven.” A Familiar Moment There is a moment everyone knows. It comes to the young married man, to the working man, and to the young married man who spends his days in Torah study. It is the moment you feel stuck. The money isn’t coming in. The opportunities don’t show up. The days go by with a heavy feeling: “What can I even do?” And right here, at exactly this point, the great temptation begins: to explain, to justify, to blame. The economy is hard. The boss doesn’t appreciate me. I just never got lucky. Each of these excuses sounds reasonable. But they all do the same thing. They take the steering wheel out of our hands and put it in someone else’s. A Question and an Answer The Torah says it simply: “It is not in heaven… The thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” We have to ask: what is so new about this? Everyone knows the Torah was given to us here on earth. Of course it isn’t in heaven! The answer is that the verse is not only saying, “Keep the commandments.” It is saying something deeper. The responsibility for your life, for your situation, for what you do, is not in heaven. No outside higher power is holding the solution, waiting to hand it to you if you wait long enough. “To do it” means this is your action, in your mouth and in your heart, right here. Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, author of the Tanya, the classic book of Hasidic thought, brings this verse when he speaks about a person’s inner work on himself. He explains that this work has no real stumbling blocks from the outside, because “the thing is very close.” This is true not only of the commandments. It is true of all the work of life. Going Deeper: Blaming Others Puts the Answer “in Heaven” Our Sages teach: “Everything is in the hands of Heaven, except the awe of Heaven.” Heaven controls nature, health and the weather. But the choice stays with you. Maimonides rules, as binding Jewish law, that a person has complete freedom of choice over his actions. This is not philosophy. It is a basic principle of Jewish law. Now notice this. When you say, “It’s not my fault, the system is to blame, the circumstances are to blame,” what are you really saying? You are saying, “The solution is not in my hands.” In other words, you are putting the solution “in heaven”: out there, beyond my reach, with someone else. And that is exactly what the verse comes to reject. It is not in heaven. The solution is not out there. It is here. If you did not cause it, then you also cannot fix it. But if you did cause it, then the fix is in your hands. The New Insight: Owning Up Is Redemption, Not Punishment And here is the point you need to hear well, dear friend. The moment you say, “I am the reason for where I am right now” is not a moment of shame. It is not a moment of falling. It is a moment of freedom. In that moment you take back the steering wheel. And the very act of taking the wheel already opens new opportunities. There is a well-known principle in the Holy Letters section of the Tanya that giving charity creates a vessel for receiving a livelihood. The idea is that the blessing already exists, but it needs a vessel to receive it. It is the same here. Accepting responsibility is the vessel. The moment you say, “I act, I choose, I am responsible,” you are building a vessel that can receive the blessing Hashem wants to send down. And don’t think this contradicts the idea that Hashem guides every detail. Just the opposite! The holy Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Hasidic movement, taught about Hashem’s personal providence. That teaching does not say that things simply happen to you and you can do nothing. It says that Hashem placed in you the power to act. His providence lies in the power He gave you, not only in what happens to you.
Putting It into Practice
King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your strength.” Not “wait for others to do it for you.” Not “pray that it will come down from Heaven.” Do it. The practical point is simple, and it is also demanding. Tomorrow morning, before you open your phone and before you start looking for reasons, ask yourself one question: What can I do today, with my own strength, to change something? Not what they should do. Not when my luck will change. What I am doing. This is not arrogance. This is inner work. This is the partnership Hashem invites us into. It is not in heaven, for the thing is very close to you. To do it.
Questions and answers
Q: What happens when a person feels stuck, with no income and no opportunities coming?
Rabbi Landau answers: There is a moment everyone knows. It comes to the young married man, to the working man, and to the young married man who spends his days in Torah study. It is the moment you feel stuck. The money isn’t coming in. The opportunities don’t show up. The days go by with a heavy feeling: “What can I even do?” And right here, at exactly this point, the great temptation begins: to explain, to justify, to blame. The economy is hard. The boss doesn’t appreciate me. I just never got lucky. Each of these excuses sounds reasonable. But they all do the same thing. They take the steering wheel out of our hands and put it in someone else’s.
Q: What is new in the Torah's statement "It is not in heaven; the thing is very close to you"?
Rabbi Landau answers: The Torah says it simply: “It is not in heaven… The thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.” We have to ask: what is so new about this? Everyone knows the Torah was given to us here on earth. Of course it isn’t in heaven! The answer is that the verse is not only saying, “Keep the commandments.” It is saying something deeper. The responsibility for your life, for your situation, for what you do, is not in heaven. No outside higher power is holding the solution, waiting to hand it to you if you wait long enough. “To do it” means this is your action, in your mouth and in your heart, right here.
Q: How does blaming others put the answer "in heaven", given that everything is in Heaven's hands except awe of Heaven?
Rabbi Landau answers: Our Sages teach: “Everything is in the hands of Heaven, except the awe of Heaven.” Heaven controls nature, health and the weather. But the choice stays with you. Maimonides rules, as binding Jewish law, that a person has complete freedom of choice over his actions. This is not philosophy. It is a basic principle of Jewish law. Now notice this. When you say, “It’s not my fault, the system is to blame, the circumstances are to blame,” what are you really saying? You are saying, “The solution is not in my hands.” In other words, you are putting the solution “in heaven”: out there, beyond my reach, with someone else. And that is exactly what the verse comes to reject.
Q: Why is taking responsibility for where I am a moment of freedom rather than shame?
Rabbi Landau answers: And here is the point you need to hear well, dear friend. The moment you say, “I am the reason for where I am right now” is not a moment of shame. It is not a moment of falling. It is a moment of freedom. In that moment you take back the steering wheel. And the very act of taking the wheel already opens new opportunities. There is a well-known principle in the Holy Letters section of the Tanya that giving charity creates a vessel for receiving a livelihood. The idea is that the blessing already exists, but it needs a vessel to receive it. It is the same here. Accepting responsibility is the vessel.
Q: What practical step does Rabbi Landau draw from "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your strength"?
Rabbi Landau answers: King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your strength.” Not “wait for others to do it for you.” Not “pray that it will come down from Heaven.” Do it. The practical point is simple, and it is also demanding. Tomorrow morning, before you open your phone and before you start looking for reasons, ask yourself one question: What can I do today, with my own strength, to change something? Not what they should do. Not when my luck will change. What I am doing. This is not arrogance. This is inner work. This is the partnership Hashem invites us into. It is not in heaven, for the thing is very close to you. To do it.