The Essence Of A Pure Heart

King David pleaded with Hashem, “A pure heart create for me, Hashem.” We know from the many passages in Tanach and statements made by our sages that the word heart has three connotations — the organ in the body, the source of human emotion and the source of thought. From the general messages compiled in Sefer Tehillim, we know King David is requesting that Hashem purify our thoughts and emotions and not the physical organ.

Upon a closer look at King David’s request, two questions come to mind. By requesting that Hashem purifies our thoughts and emotions, what role do we play in our spiritual growth? Second, what is purification actually referring to?

Regarding Hashem purifying our thoughts and emotions, we know from the words of our sages that there is a central role for people to be directly involved in fixing themselves and not relying on miracles. Hence, our sages understand the verse, “a pure heart help create in me…” We are asking Hashem to aid us in our task to purify our hearts.

Secondly, what does it actually mean to purify a heart? The Nesivos Shalom explains it to mean, fixing one’s middot. Good character is a prerequisite for fulfillment of mitzvot and service to Hashem.  

This idea is based on a question by Rabbi Chaim Vital, z”l, the primary disciple of the Holy Arizal. Why doesn’t the Torah explicitly forbid certain negative character traits which are considered like abominations to Hashem? Examples include anger, arrogance, jealousy and lust. He explained middot to be the foundation of Taryag Mitzvot and not a specific mitzvah of the Torah. 

The Slonimer Rebbe, z”l,  clarified this idea. It assumes that a Jew’s relationship to mitzvot corresponds to the purity of his character. “Lack of ethical perfection is a flaw in one’s basic orientation as a Jew.” This can be compared to a building with a weak foundation. There will be an ongoing danger to occupy this edifice because of the foundation. So too, our pursuit of mitzvot and our sanctification through them will be lacking because our middot, our spiritual foundation is weak.

As the essence of a human being and its primacy in reaching the goal of serving Hashem with all of our heart, purity of character is a matter that every parent and teacher must deal with in a comprehensive way.

This article is an introduction to our new E-Book, The Development of Character; Middot Education for Children. The book is available to all subscribers as a gift. Please subscribe to our website to redeem your copy.