Once when I was getting a taxi ride in Eretz Yisrael, the nahag (driver) looked at me and said, “I can tell you are a yeshiva bachur. You keep Shabbat, put on tefillin every day, and learn.” I smiled widely. Then the driver looked at me, as if to tell me the secret of the universe. “I want to tell you…I am Jew. I don’t keep Shabbat, and I don’t learn Torah, but I am a Jew at heart. The main thing is to have a lev tov (good heart),” he said.

“Yes, a person must have a good heart, but what exactly is a lev tov?” I asked him. Many times, people act with good intentions but, unfortunately, they’re misguided and do things which are harmful. So, what is a lev tov, and is it really true that all one needs is to have a good heart?

The importance of a good heart is alluded to by the 49 days of the Omer. The gematria of the word lev is 32, and the gematria of the word tov is 17, so combined they total 49. This corresponds to the 49 days of the Omer. Indeed, the period of Sefiras HaOmer is a time to focus on developing a lev tov—a good heart.

The Bnei Yissaschar notes that the 33rd word in the Torah is tov— good. This is an allusion to Lag B’Omer, the 33rd day of the Omer, signifying that it is a good day. There is also an allusion from here to the concept of lev tov. Since there are a total of 32 words from the beginning of the Torah until the word “tov,” the numerical value of the first 32 words, read together with the 33rd word, spells lev tov. Thus, the Torah opens alluding to the concept of a lev tov—a good heart!

The Mishna in Avos also stresses the primacy of a “good heart.” Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai told his top five students to go out and search for the best path a person should follow in observing Torah. They came back with five different answers: a good eye, a good friend, a good neighbor, planning for the future, and Rabbi Elazar said, lev tov, a good heart. Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai said lev tov is the best answer, as it includes all the other qualities.

The Maharal explains this with an analogy to the physical heart. Just as the heart is the center of the body and pumps essential blood throughout the body, so too a lev tov includes all other good attributes, including a good eye, a good friend and so on.

Rabbeinu Yonah highlights the emphasis on a good heart as opposed to good actions. This is because the heart is the source of passion and motivation. Passion to do the right thing is even greater than doing a particular right thing, since our passion sets a life direction that will be followed by many actual practices. Although the mind understands what’s right, a person’s passion and desire will drive him to accomplish much more than just a cerebral understanding.

But how do we define what is really tov? The Beraisa in Avos says that the only “tov” is Torah, as the pasuk says, “Ki lekach tov nasati lachem, torasi…—For I have given you a good teaching, My Torah…” The Torah is the ultimate good, and therefore the Torah can define what is good. The Torah is an absolute system of good that doesn’t waver with any political party, ideology or “ism.” Its very definition is “good.”

Lag B’Omer starts the period of the last 17 (tov) days of the Omer. It is the last trimester of the Omer, leading into Shavous when Klal Yisrael received the Torah. The fact that this period leads into the time we received the Torah alludes to our need to carve out time to focus on learning Torah, which gives us the guidance and direction regarding what is truly good.

While we seem to conclude that our main objective is to have a good heart, that is the case only as long as it’s truly “good.” The last period of the Omer is the time to take our lev with all its passions and desires and, with the direction of the Torah, channel our thoughts and actions to achieve praiseworthy accomplishments both bein adam laMakom and bein adam lachaveiro—between man and Hashem and between man and his fellow man.

Rabbi Baruch Bodenheim is the Rosh Yeshiva of Passaic Torah Institute (PTI)/Yeshiva Ner Boruch. Rabbi Bodenheim can be reached at [email protected]. For more info about PTI and its Torah classes, visit www.pti.shulcloud.com