THE STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF THE HEART

There is something dangerous about wandering without direction.Anyone who has ever
gone window shopping knows the feeling. You say you are just looking around – you have
no particular plan, no clear intention, no dened purpose. And somehow, before long, you
are drawn towards things you never came for, distracted by things you never needed, and
perhaps even lost in a place you never meant to enter.

But when you know what you are looking for, when you know why you are there, everything
changes. The same heart that can be distracted can also become focused. The same
curiosity that can pull us away can also lead us towards something meaningful.

This idea lies at the heart of a fascinating tension in the Torah.In this week’s parsha, we are
told:“ ולא תתורו אחרי לבבכם ” “Do not stray after your heart.”Yet Shlomo HaMelech says in
Kohelet:“ והלך בדרכי לבך ” “Walk in the ways of your heart.”So which is it? Should we follow
the heart, or should we not?

The Netziv(Rabbi Naftali Berlin, Volozhin; d. 1893)explains that there is no contradiction.
There is a major dierence betweenlatur— to wander after the heart, andlalechet— to
walk with the heart.

To wander after the heart means to allow ourselves to drift without boundaries, without
values, and without direction. It means letting every passing desire decide where we go
next. That kind of heart can easily mislead us.

To walk with the heart means something very dierent. It means recognising that within
Torah, within mitzvot, within the framework of right and wrong, each person has their own
path in serving Hashem.Some hearts are drawn to Torah study. Some are drawn to prayer.
Some are drawn to acts of kindness. Some nd their deepest connection through teaching,
giving, singing, hospitality, or quiet consistency.

The question is not whether we should have a heart. Judaism does not ask us to silence the
heart – it asks us to educate it.

A heart without direction becomes a tourist, wandering from place to place. But a heart
guided by Torah becomes a compass, helping each person discover the unique path that
their soul was sent here to walk.