Shema: Divrei Binah: The Promise of the Third Paragraph

If we achieve, “Place these words of Mine upon your heart, and upon your soul” as a result of, “Bind them for a sign upon your arm and let them be Tefillin between your eyes,” and “Teach them to your children to discuss them, while you sit in your home, while you walk on the way, when you retire and when you arise,” then the verse in the Third Paragraph, “(You shall not) explore after your heart and after your eyes after which you stray,” becomes, not a demand, but a promise, “I will guard you from sinning!” (Divrei Binah – Eikev)

This also offers a new approach to the sixth of the Six Constant Mitzvot: It can be read as a positive instruction: Constantly work at attaching to God so that you achieve the promise of, “I will guard you from sinning.”