This week, while I was teaching a class on the different emotional qualities of the soul (midot, (in Hebrew) a person made a comment: “But people never change.” The issue being studied was how to improve attitudes, such as anger, wastefulness, mockery, etc., qualities that are found to a greater or lesser degree in all people.
Since the class itself wasn't about that topic, although related, I didn't answer the question in full. I wanted to take this opportunity to share my thoughts.
The parashah This week's Torah portion is called Shoftim (Judges), and it contains a verse that can help us resolve this issue. The Torah is discussing the siege of a city, one of those that the Jewish people, upon entering the Land of Canaan, were to conquer. In ancient times, sieges were fortified with trees, attempting to construct some kind of structure to penetrate the city wall or to destroy it. The Torah indicates that fruit-bearing trees should not be used for this purpose, while non-fruit-bearing trees may be used. The reason for this, the Torah states (Deuteronomy 20:19), is "For man is a tree of the field." Ibn Ezra, a Torah commentator, explains that the verse is saying that since we obtain sustenance from the tree, we should not destroy it. Man is (that is, he obtains sustenance from or lives by) a tree of the field.
Beyond this explanation, Hasidic thought understands this verse literally: man is, indeed, a tree of the field, that is, he has similarities with the trees of the field. And many similarities are drawn, such as taking root, bearing fruit, growing in general, etc. But there is one similarity that relates to our question.
Hasidic thought explains that there are four types of creation: inanimate objects, plants, animals, and humankind. In turn, within humankind itself, there are four levels: the "plant" level of humankind comprises its emotional qualities. Just as plants grow and bear fruit, so too do emotions within a human being grow from lesser to greater and "bear fruit." For example, when a person develops a sense of solidarity, they help their neighbors.
Now, each of us has a combination of natural, innate emotional components. These components don't change over time; they simply develop and grow to bear fruit, like a tree. Up to this point, the student's comment, "people don't change," appears to be correct.
However, this is where personal development work comes in: while a person's natural qualities generally do not change (it requires very deep and complex spiritual work to modify them, a matter limited to the tzaddikim The orientation and approach to using these qualities (in general) can (and in some cases should) change. This change is achieved through the study of qualities in general, personal qualities in particular, and the various methods and tools available for modifying them. In other words, the study of Hasidism.
So, the statement “people never change” is both true and false. Each person must learn to direct their qualities to use them to the fullest in service to God.
It is worth mentioning that in Hasidism it is explained that joy breaks down barriers, and is one of the factors that generates a very profound change in a person.
The example is of a stingy person who, at the moment of greatest joy, for example, at the wedding of his only son, can end up squandering money in a way he never imagined, because the joy broke the barrier of his nature.
And this joy is capable of not only breaking the nature acquired through habit, that is, a person who behaves in a certain way due to habit that has become their nature, but even more so, joy has the power to break and modify the very nature of the person.
The psalmist says "serve God with joy" and elsewhere he says (Mishnah at the end of Kiddushin) "I was created only to serve my Creator," so all aspects of serving God should be permeated with joy.