What does “I gave my heart to examine” mean?
By Rabbi Shalom Landau.
Rabbi Landau teaches that the verse “Nasati es libi lachakor,” “I gave my heart to examine,” is about more than thinking. It is about observing. Not just to think, he says, but to watch the thinking itself. “That’s the difference.”
In A Soul at Peace, he points out how strange the wording is. A person does not need to “give” a thought; thoughts roll in by themselves and fill the head day and night. So when King Solomon says “I gave my heart,” he is describing a deliberate act: choosing to turn your awareness toward the act of thinking, not only toward what the thought is about.
That, Rabbi Landau teaches, is the level above thought: noting the thought while it is happening. Every person has thoughts. Giving your heart means standing beside them and seeing them.
Related concepts: Thinking · Selfawareness
In A Soul at Peace: Giving My Heart: Learning to Watch Your Own Mind
Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level
Surface claim
“I gave my heart to examine” means choosing to observe your own thinking.
Fear, vulnerability, or tension
In the book Rabbi Landau writes that most of the time a thought simply happens to a person, and he finds himself inside it without deciding to go in.
Deepest human truth
Rabbi Landau writes that the very second a person notices, he is already giving, no longer just passively receiving.
More questions from this teaching
More answers: Wisdom, Perception, and the Inner Life · All questions · Questions about Rabbi Landau and Rivnitz