Vaeira
Parashat Vaeira – Hakarat HaTov
This week’s Parasha begins relating the Makkot, the plagues with which Hashem punished the Egyptians. There is an interesting and important lesson to be learned from the way Hashem instructed Moshe and Aharon to launch the Makkot.
In the first Makka, Makkat Dam, Hashem could simply have instructed Moshe to hit the River Nile with his staff. Yet, Moshe was instructed to pass the mission on to Aharon: “Hashem said to Moshe, say to Aharon, take your staff and stretch out your arm over the waters of Egypt… and there shall be blood throughout the land of Egypt, and in wooden and stone vessels” (Shemot, 7:19).
Why couldn’t Moshe have launched the Makka himself? Rashi answers, drawing on the Midrash, that the River Nile had previously protected Moshe. As a baby, Moshe had been set afloat on the River Nile from where he was subsequently rescued by Pharaoh's daughter. Explains the Midrash, “Since the river had protected Moshe when he was cast into it, therefore it was not struck by him, not for Dam nor for Tzefarde’a, and it was instead struck by Ahraon”.
It is difficult to understand this Midrash. After all, when we look a little deeper into the history of the River Nile, we discover that it was an Avoda Zara! The Egyptian people worshipped it and deified it! As Yechezkel HaNavi writes (29:3), “Paroh, the King of Egypt, the great serpent who crouches within his rivers and says, ‘This river is mine and I created myself’”. The River Nile was seen as an alternative to believing in Hashem, “I do not need Higher Powers, for my river takes care of all my needs” (Rashi, ibid.).
How did Pharaoh manage to convince the Egyptians to worship himself and the Nile? The Mefarshim explain that Pharaoh took advantage of the Bracha of Yaakov Avinu. When Yaakov met Paroh, he blessed the Egyptian people that they should have plentiful crops. As a result of this Bracha, each time Paroh would approach the River Nile, the waters would swell and flood the plains alongside the river. As soon as the farmers noticed this new phenomenon, they dug canals and channeled the precious waters to their fields and cities. In this way, the lands all around the Nile became a lush and fertile oasis in the arid Middle East, and this was the key to Egypt’s wealth and greatness at that time. Yet, the wicked Paroh never revealed the true reason why the Nile began to break its banks, that it all had to do with the Bracha of Yaakov Avinu. Rather, he lied to his people and used the Nile to reinforce his own standing in the eyes of the Egyptians, “It is all me, I am the god of the river”.
If so, we might ask, why was it inappropriate for Moshe Rabbeinu to hit the River Nile? After all, the whole purpose of the Makkot was to demonstrate that “I am Hashem”, to announce Hashem’s presence in the world!? Is it not fitting that Moshe should launch these lessons?
Furthermore, the river didn’t go out of its way to protect Moshe Rabbeinu. Nature dictates that lightweight baskets float on water. If so, the fact that Moshe Rabbeinu spent some time floating on its waters can hardly be considered significant. Yet, despite all these considerations, the Torah teaches us that it was still incorrect for Moshe Rabbeinu to hit the River Nile. We see from here just how much value the Torah places on Hakarat Hatov. Moshe Rabbeinu’s debt of gratitude for the small service provided by the river 80 years earlier prevented him from personally hitting the river. It made no difference that the purpose of hitting the river was to sanctify Hashem’s Name.
We see this idea from the Makka of Kinnim as well. There too, Hashem said to Moshe to “tell Aharon to stretch out his staff and strike the dust of the ground” (Shemot 8:12) to bring forth the lice. Rashi once more quotes the Midrash, “It was deemed unworthy for the dust to be smitten by Moshe for it had protected him when he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand”.
If we stop and think for a moment, here too we might ask, just how helpful was the sand to Moshe Rabbeinu? Although at the time Moshe thought that the sand had helped him to cover his tracks, in fact he was reported to Paroh the very next day by the two quarreling Jews. We can only imagine what happened next. Detectives were led to the crime scene by the two witnesses. There, they pushed the sand of the freshly dug grave and promptly uncovered the body of the missing Egyptian. Moshe is then arrested and tried for murder. He is found guilty and sentenced to death. Yet, he manages to flee the country, leaving behind his comfortable palace for the dangerous life of a nomadic refugee in Midyan. He lives on the run for more than 60 years! And yet, upon his return to Egypt, he is expected to pay his respects to the sand for having done nothing to help his cause, to the extent that he could not hit it even for the most noble reason – to demonstrate that the world is directed by Hashem! Had the sand miraculously swallowed up the corpse and concealed the evidence, there would have been something to talk about, but the sand afforded him peace and quiet for no more than a day!
From here too, we learn the supreme importance of Hakarat HaTov. The Torah is teaching us that the value of this trait is so great that even weighty counter-considerations do not justify turning one’s back on this obligation. Furthermore, this obligation applies with full force even to the most minor of details.
Hakarat HaTov to Inanimate Objects
A further point to ponder is why was it so important that Moshe felt appreciation towards the river and the ground? After all, a river has no feelings, it is totally unconscious. The same goes for dust. If so, why was it deemed inappropriate for Moshe to hit the water and the dust? Why did Hashem insist that Moshe enlist the services of Aharon to launch these Makkot?
Perhaps the answer is that our Avoda in this world is to recognize that the world has a Creator. In other words, to recognize that although Hashem created many creations, all these creations are nothing more than His agents who carry out His wishes and fulfil His plan. Everything that happens is overseen by Hashem Himself, with each individual’s best interests in mind. Each detail is perfectly tailored for everyone’s lives.
When a person trains himself to adopt this mindset, realizing that all of nature – the people, the animals, the plants and the inanimate objects – are just the obedient agents of Hashem, he comes to see the hand of Hashem everywhere and in everything.
From this perspective, there is no fundamental difference between Hakarat HaTov to another person who has done good for you or to an inanimate object who has done good for you. In both cases, the true Hakarat Hatov is recognizing the kind guiding hand of Hashem operating through each and every one of His agents.
This explains why it is so serious to fail to appreciate the gifts that naturally come one’s way. To deny the goodness of others is to deny the goodness of Hashem Himself! As Chazal state in the Midrash (Rabbah, Shemot, 1:8), “Anyone who negates the good done to him by his fellow man ultimately comes to negate the good done to him by Hashem. We learn this from Pharaoh who first failed to appreciate what Yosef had done, and ultimately denied Hashem altogether. This can be compared to someone who pelted the statue of a commander with stones. Said the King, ‘Cut off his head! Tomorrow he will do the same to me!’.”
We learn from here how important it is to train ourselves to appreciate all the good that others do for us. G-d forbid, if we get into the habit of negating these kindnesses, we sew perilous seeds that may lead us to negate the endless kindnesses of Hashem that surround our every moment.
We must take the time to think of all the gifts that Hashem sends our way. Having recently spent time in hospital alongside my dear father Shlit”a, I came to see the brilliance of the human body created by Hashem. It is composed of so many sophisticated parts, and sustained by so many chemicals and nutrients. Everything must be perfectly in balance: too much or too little of some chemicals can be lethal! To this end Hashem invested the body with systems that regulate the body and maintain this balance. It is when things malfunction that we truly realize the great gifts we have day in day out. Do we appreciate what an eye is and how blessed we are each moment we can see through our eyes? Do we appreciate the complex design of the legs and how lucky we are to be able to move about on them? Do we even appreciate the ability to breathe independently, not to have to wheel around an oxygen tank wherever we go!
The fact that almost everybody enjoys these gifts does not change anything when one realizes that nature itself is just the agent of Hashem to bring each and every individual the precise things that he requires for his ultimate good. We all have a huge personal debt of gratitude to Hashem for every breath that we breathe, for every step that we take, and for every decision that we are able to make.
The greatest challenge to appreciating the constant goodness of Hashem is downregulation. We get used to what we have. The same gifts that used to provoke heartfelt feelings of gratitude now become taken for granted. We expect them, we feel entitled to them, we no longer feel the need to be thankful for them. G-d forbid, we begin to slip into negating the kindness of HaShem. As Hakarat HaTov and Emunah reinforce each other, without Hakarat HaTov we place our very Emunah at risk. On the other hand, if we work on our Emunah and Hakarat HaTov, we will experience more and more of the kindness of Hashem.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Gad Bouskila
