The Power of an Open Heart

The reason the Creator chose Moses to be the leader of the Israelites was because of one small, simple gesture Moses made. One day while shepherding his flock of sheep on the hillside, he noticed that one of the little lambs was injured and lacked the strength to go back to pasture. Instead of leaving the poor lamb behind, Moses went back and picked it up, carrying the small animal gently in his arms.

Seeing this, the Creator said, “If he cares so much for one of My littlest creatures, how much more can he care for My people.”

It wasn’t Moses’s intelligence or even the breadth and depth of his spiritual wisdom that made him a leader in the eyes of God. Rather, it was the quality of his heart—his ability to embody the harmony, care, and love that exists within the Creator’s Light.

The Zohar says:

"Come and see, when a man wills himself to worship his Master, the will first reaches the heart, which is the basis and foundation of the entire body. Then that goodwill is diffused in all the members of the body; and the will of the members of the body and the will of the heart combine and draw to themselves the splendor of the Shechinah to rest on them. – Zohar, Pekudei 5:71

If one has an open heart, then the whole of the individual and everything around that person will be affected. The hands, the feet, and even the environment all react according to the heart’s influence.