This week’s parshah features the well-known pesukim of Kriyas Shema, in which we are commanded to “place these words upon your heart.” The Kotzker Rebbe queries the Torah’s choice of words and asks: Why are we told to place these important words “upon” our hearts? Shouldn’t they be placed deep within our hearts?
To answer, he explains that a person’s heart is not always open and receptive to Hashem’s teachings. At times all we can do is place the words upon our hearts, so that when the time comes and our hearts open, they will be there already, ready and waiting to enter where they need to go. This is why we constantly daven to Hashem to “open our hearts to Your Torah” — because this is something that we need Divine assistance with. Meanwhile, we can and must prepare ourselves to have our prayers answered, keeping words of Torah upon our hearts and ready to enter.
This is not only true about ourselves; often, we try to instill ideas into our children only to wait, patiently or not, to see results. It can take years before we see the fruits of our efforts. It’s tempting to try to speed things up, to apply pressure on our children to comply. Generally, however, additional pressure is counterproductive and makes it harder for our children to accept our instruction. Instead, we should keep the words there gently resting with the occasional soft reminder, without pressure — and keep davening for the day when their hearts will open and all the seeds we have planted and watered finally begin to sprout, in the sunshine of Hashem’s siyatta diShmaya. When we remember that our job is to place what we’re teaching in the right place so that at the right time it will all sink in and take effect, we’ll find it easier to be patient when waiting for the results we hope for.
