Ki Tavo “Getting to Know You”

Eighty years ago, Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser wrote the song “Heart and Soul”.  The music, sometimes called “Chopsticks”, is still taught to novice piano players.  The first line of the lyrics reads: “Heart and soul, I fell in love with you”.  The song is catchy, endearing and enduring; a version of it – sung by Train – made the charts just a few years ago.

The words and concepts Heart and Soul and Love fit together naturally.  But with due deference to Carmichael and Loesser, the Original Lyricist was HaShem!  Just look at the first line of the Shema, after the declaration itself, which proclaims:

And you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your means.

וְאָ֣הַבְתָּ֔ אֵ֖ת ה אֱלֹקְיךָ בְּכָל־לְבָֽבְךָ֥ וּבְכָל־נַפְשְׁךָ֖ וּבְכָל־מְאֹדֶֽךָ

Deut. 6:5

However, to read the Shema from our modern worldview is to misunderstand the Shema.  We, who learn the Torah from a twenty-first century frame of reference risk missing the nuance and intended poetry of the verse.  This is true even when we read Torah in the original Hebrew.

In modern (“Western”) literature and culture, the Heart is the seat of love.  Not so in the Torah.  Take, for example, the following verses from our parsha, Ki Tavo:

And Moses called all of Israel and said to them, “You have seen all that the Lord did before your very eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, to all his servants, and to all his land;	וַיִּקְרָ֥א משֶׁ֛ה אֶל־כָּל־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֲלֵהֶ֑ם אַתֶּ֣ם רְאִיתֶ֗ם אֵ֣ת כָּל־אֲשֶׁר֩ עָשָׂ֨ה ה’ לְעֵֽינֵיכֶם֙ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם לְפַרְעֹ֥ה וּלְכָל־עֲבָדָ֖יו וּלְכָל־אַרְצֽוֹ
the great trials which your very eyes beheld and those great signs and wonders.	הַמַּסּוֹת֙ הַגְּדֹלֹ֔ת אֲשֶׁ֥ר רָא֖וּ עֵינֶ֑יךָ הָֽאֹתֹ֧ת וְהַמֹּֽפְתִ֛ים הַגְּדֹלִ֖ים הָהֵֽם
Yet until this day, the Lord has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see and ears to hear.	וְלֹֽא־נָתַן֩ ה’ לָכֶ֥ם לֵב֙ לָדַ֔עַת וְעֵינַ֥יִם לִרְא֖וֹת וְאָזְנַ֣יִם לִשְׁמֹ֑עַ עַ֖ד הַיּ֥וֹם הַזֶּֽה

Deut. 29:3

It is clear from the plain meaning that from the Torah’s perspective, the heart was the organ of thought, intellect, and reason.  Ears are for hearing and eyes are for seeing.  The heart’s task is to make sense of what our eyes and ears have brought to us.  We are so accustomed to associating “heart” with “love” that we overlook that in ancient Hebrew, Heart – lev – was the brains of the body.

So taught Rambam in his philosophical masterpiece, “Moreh Nevuchim”, “A Guide to the Perplexed” (1:39).  Rambam – a renowned physician – begins his commentary with a quick biology lesson, explaining that האבר אשר בו התחלת חיי כל בעל לב, the heart “is the organ which is the source of life” such that when it stops beating death follows (see, 1 Sam. 18:14, quoted by Rambam).  He quickly proceeds to explain that besides its medical purpose, the heart is the repository of “thought” (והוא שם מחשבה גם כן) and understanding (והוא שם השכל).

Based on the foregoing, Rambam takes a more cerebral view of the Shema:

As to the passage, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart” (Ib. 6:5), I explain “with all thine heart” to mean “with all the powers of thine heart,” that is, with all the powers of the body, for they all have their origin in the heart, and the sense of the entire passage is: make the knowledge of God the aim of all thy actions

אמנם מאמר ״ואהבת את ה אלוקיך בכל לבבך״ פירושו אצלי בכל כוחות לבך – כלומר כוחות הגוף כולם – כי התחלת הכל – מן הלב; והענין שתשים תכלית פעולותיך כולם

Love for Rambam (and others) is not merely an emotion.  It is an intellectual pursuit and awakening.  It is a decision ״to get to know״ God, to ascertain what is expected of us, to make the right choices.  Thus King David asks: “Who dwells in God’s Tent?”  And David answers:

He who walks uprightly and works righteousness and speaks truth in his heart.

הוֹלֵךְ תָּמִים וּפֹעֵל צֶדֶק וְדֹבֵר אֱמֶת בִּלְבָבוֹ

Ps. 19:2

On our verse “Yet until this day, the Lord has not given you a heart to know”, Rashi comments that the heart’s purpose is:

to recognize the kind acts of the Holy One, Blessed is He, and [therefore] to cleave to Him.

להכיר את חסדי הקדוש ברוך הוא ולידבק בו

For Rashi, thoughtful and pensive quests lead to cleaving, the truest expression of love.  Rashi no doubt used the verb דבק  (‘DVK’) intentionally, to draw the reader to Genesis 2:

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

עַל־כֵּן֙ יַֽעֲזָב־אִ֔ישׁ אֶת־אָבִ֖יו וְאֶת־אִמּ֑וֹ וְדָבַ֣ק בְּאִשְׁתּ֔וֹ וְהָי֖וּ לְבָשָׂ֥ר אֶחָֽד:

Love is not lust.  The latter is just biology run amok; it is a fast-beating heart.  Love is the result of deep understanding borne out of patience and knowledge.  Perhaps this is why the Torah uses the verb “to know” as the euphemism for loving sexual relations.  This is true for human relationships.  This is also true for our relationship with the Divine.

It may not be scientifically accurate, but the heart remains a beautiful metaphor for reason and knowledge.  The Rabbis of the Talmud, familiar with anatomy, appreciated that just as we have two ears and two eyes and two arms and two legs, so too are we endowed with a complex, two-sided heart (see, e.g., Chullin 45b).  Two ears deliver diverse sounds.  Two eyes give us visual perspective.  And our multichambered heart houses all the conflicts and internal strife that plague us.

This point is made in connection with בְּכָל־לְבָֽבְךָ֥ used in the Shema. The Midrash explains that the double “bet” teaches us that we must love God with both our hearts (our good and evil ‘inclinations’).

Our parsha concludes with the simple truth that God endowed us with the equipment to observe and experience all the Wonders of the Universe.  Besides stereoscopic eyes and ears, we also have a heart of wisdom, that when trained, will surely see the Hand of God in those Wonders.

As we enter into the home stretch of preparing for Rosh HaShanah, it is worth keeping in mind – in our hearts – that what Anna sang so sweetly to her eager school children is indeed the theme of all of Torah:

Getting to know you Getting to know all about you Getting to like you Getting to hope you like me

Haven’t you noticed Suddenly I’m bright and breezy? Because of all the beautiful and new Things I’m learning about you Day by day

May we have a heartfelt year of love and happiness and health and blessing.

May we continue to get to know each other, and HaShem.

Shabbat Shalom!