Vayikra פָּרָשַׁת וַיִּקְרָא

If I were to ask you: what are the important concepts we are to learn from the imminent festival of Pesach, you might respond, “The importance of freedom and liberty, the equality of mankind”, “human rights”, “social justice”, and “compassion.”

And yes, the holiday message has a bit of all that and more. But listen to these words from my teacher, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik: “The essence of the Seder and hence that of telling the story of the exodus from Egypt, is the expression of gratitude to the Almighty on the great liberation and miracles that He brought for us in Egypt".

As the Rambam - Maimonides - states in his Book of Commandments, “We are commanded to tell the story at the beginning of the 15th of Nisan and we are commanded to thank Him for all the goodness He has bestowed upon us.”

We can concentrate on these two words - THANK YOU - because there is nothing more important to talk about on Pesach, especially as we move through the end of Pesach. The theme of Thanksgiving is a central, perhaps THE CENTRAL, part of Pesach.

On the Seder night, at the climax of Maggid, we say: "Therefore we are obligated to thank and praise … exalt and revere Him who performed all those miracles and for us.” The fact is, in countless ways, our sages read the story of our Egyptian experience as containing lessons in Thanksgiving.

For example... What was Moshe’s name? You say Moses, or Moshe in Hebrew. Not really! That name was given to him by Pharaoh’s daughter. As a child, to escape the Egyptian persecution he was placed in a basket, floated down the river and discovered by the daughter of Pharaoh and was called Moshe – “Ki min ha-mayim mshisuhu” – because I drew him out of the water.

But what was the name given to him at birth by his parents? It’s not clearly stated in the Torah … he is always called by this name “Moshe,” given to him by Pharaoh’s daughter. Why? Say our sages: “Mikan attah lomaid s’choron shel gomlei chasidim” – “from here we see the reward given to the righteous.” Because Pharaoh’s daughter was good enough to save his life, as an act of gratitude and appreciation, we and God himself, only referred to Moshe by the name given to him by the daughter of Pharaoh. In Hebrew we call this “hakorat hatov – recognition of the good.” In English it is the two words: THANK YOU.

Another example... God appears to Moshe in the burning bush, appoints him as a leader of the Jewish people and tells him to return to Egypt.

Does Moshe comply? Not right away! First, he goes back to Yitro – his father-in-law. The Midrash points out that Moshe said to God, “Yitro took me in when nobody else would. I can’t just walk out on him … I first have to go and ask his permission and say thank you for all he has done.”  That’s gratitude.  

Still later Moshe helps bring the plagues on Egypt, but not the first two. Those are brought by his brother, Aaron. Why? Because the first two, blood and frogs, came from water … the very same water that had once saved Moshe’s life. Think about that. It would have been the height of ingratitude for him to bring plagues from the very same water that had helped save his life. Even the water deserves a debt of gratitude. Moshe Rabbeinu – Moshe our teacher. Indeed, his name, Moshe, teaches us to say THANK YOU.

May we all recognize the gifts that are ours this Pesach and express gratitude for them all.