In the portion of Ki Tavo, Moses says to the Jewish people: “G‑d didn’t give you a heart to understand … until this day.”

Usually, we connect the mind with understanding and the heart with emotions. However, here it says “a heart to understand.” What is the connection between the heart and understanding?

The answer could be found by looking at the Hebrew word used here, daat, which we translate as “understanding.”

Just because someone is smart, doesn’t stop him from doing immature or stupid things: Watch a smart child play in the mud wearing his nicest clothes or a genius implode over a trivial matter.

This is because they lack daat.

What is daat? It is the ability to take your smarts and apply it to your emotional makeup. It is the bridge between the mind and heart. This takes time and effort.

For the Jewish people in the desert, it took 40 years to develop this level of understanding, where their hearts and minds beat to the same Jewish drum.

This process can be accomplished by every one of us. Every day we become more in sync. Every Torah lesson we apply to ourselves, we become more in tune with G‑d.

The same is true for our relationships. First, you get to know each other. But with time and effort, the relationship gets deeper, and you begin to sense your other’s way of seeing things. Until there comes a time that you are so in sync, that you don’t have to think about it—you just know.

This signifies a “heart to understand.” It happens when your emotions—and subsequently your actions—are in sync with your mind, specifically with your Torah knowledge.