BeLIeVING With All of Your Heart

Parshat Ki Tavo

by Rabbi Avi Billet

“This day God commands you to fulfill [all the laws], and you should do them with all your heart, and with all your soul.” (26:16)

 The Midrash Tanaim jumps on the classic interpretation (see also Tanchuma 1) that when Moshe says “This day” with reference to mitzvah observance, he is noting that any demonstration of following the Torah creates a visual for God as if the Jewish people have accepted the Torah today.

 It is possible that the word “L’vavkha” (your heart) is plural, suggesting more than one heart. Obviously every individual only has one heart. Midrash Tanaim suggest that the soul is also considered the heart. We know that body without a heart can not live. Perhaps the homiletic jump is not that far off, that a soulless individual has no real life.

 On the other hand, the Rosh argues that when a person prays he should be careful not to have two hearts, one focused on God and the other focused on other things.

 Rabbenu Bachaye looks at our opening verse and addresses the difference between this and a similar sentiment in the Shema. Moshe told us there, “And you shall love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your essence… these words that I command you today should be on your heart…” The message there was also, as the Rabbis expounded, that the words of the Torah being commanded “today” should be new in your eyes always. After all, generations change, and the heart of Man is drawn after what he sees.

 This may be why the Shema is exactly that – a call to “Hear” and not to see. Seeing, after all, is a better form of proof leading to belief than merely hearing something second hand.

The truth is that every fact or event is only witnessed by a few people in the scheme of history. But if everyone talks about it, allowing others to “hear” about it, then word can spread forever.

 The message Rabbenu Bachaye extracts from our verse beginning with “this day” and ending with “with all your soul” is the teaching that a person is obligated to be “mosair nefesh” (push himself to the extremes, perhaps be ready to lay down his life) for mitzvos, throughout all generations, just as he was ready to do so on the day the Torah was given.

 Imagine what it was like to experience Revelation. To have all doubts removed, and to KNOW that God is there. To understand that our purpose in life was to be brought to this place so we could receive a gift. And the understanding of the special nature of the Torah becomes increasingly apparent, the more the weather changes from a bright and beautiful morning to a day of a smoking mountain, thunder and lightning, and the sound of a shofar.

 Just as a person would have been ready at that time to do anything for God, a person should be ready and prepared at all times, every day, to serve God properly.

 To put it more directly, the Seforno says the message of doing mitzvos with all your heart is, “That you should recognize without any doubt that it is proper to fulfill His will.”

 Whether one does it with the proper intention or not, the purpose of mitzvah observance and the goal of a Torah lifestyle is meant to train a person to be a “ma’amin,” a believer.

 Too often we fall back on the reasons for why we do the things we do, we daven because we’re trained to, we build a sukkah because it’s that time of year again, we keep Shabbos because we have to. These are all true.

 But we must also recognize that the Torah, for us, is a new book handed to us from Sinai. We know it comes from God! We know the author, the giver, and the teacher. And we want to fulfill its every word, because it is through fulfillment of these Mitzvos, and through the subsequent connection we build towards and maintain with God that we become fulfilled Jews.

 Let us strive to tap into that excitement of newness. To demonstrate for ourselves and our children and grandchildren that we can truly have a love for God and His People if we always have that fresh exhilaration at the prospect of doing His will.