By Rabbi Berach Steinfeld
After Moshe ran from Mitzrayim he arrives in Midyan at the well. He meets the daughters of Yisro. After the daughters were chased away by other shepherds, Moshe saves them and helps them feed their animals. When the daughters come home at an earlier time than the norm, Yiso asks them, “How come you are home so early?” They respond, “An Egyptian saved us from the other shepherds, and he also fed our animals.”
There are two parts to the daughters’ answer. The Yalkut explains that indeed the shepherds actually threw the daughters into the well. Moshe saved their lives by pulling them out of the well. In addition, he also fed the animals. Upon hearing the story, Yisro immediately asks his daughters, “Where is he? Why did you leave him there? Call him. Let him eat bread with us.” The Yalkut uses this story to explain the concept that one is required to do chessed in payment of a chessed that was done for him. We see that hakaras ha’tov is not just being polite, it is a requirement of a person to show appreciation for a favor that is done for him.
In order to be able to show hakaras ha’tov one must first analyze and understand that someone did him a favor and only then can he respond properly. Reb Michel Yehudah Lefkowitz zt”l says that there are two aspects here. The first part is to analyze and understand the favor received. The second part is to return the favor. One might think that the latter is more important than the former. But the opposite is true. Let’s analyze the story of Yisro and Moshe. Yisro feeds Moshe and hosts him. It would seem that it is the least he can do, since Moshe saved the lives of his daughters. However, the fact that Yisro showed hakaras hatov actually saves his offspring in the times of Shaul HaMelech. When Shaul was fighting with the Amaleikim, the families of Keini (Yisro’s grandchildren) were spared. The Alter from Slabodka says that they were really supposed to be wiped out with the others. Shaul saved them and he said, “This is in appreciation of the chessed you did to the bnei Yisroel when they left Mitzrayim.”
The above statement is amazing. Even though Yisro owed his daughters’ lives to Moshe and he did the minimum by hosting and feeding Moshe, he got rewarded. This goes to show that the payback is not the main thing. The essence is that a person analyzes and understands the favor done for him. Even if the payback is minimal, if the person understands that he owes something, that understanding in and of itself is the main part of hakoras ha’tov.
It goes even further. When Hashem tells Moshe to go to Mitzrayim, Moshe responds, “I must get permission from Yisro.” He did not go to Mitzrayim until he received permission from Yisro. The Yalkut says that from here we learn that if one opens his home to another person, the other person owes him his “life.” Hashem tells Moshe to go, and he responds I can’t go because I owe hakaras ha’tov to Yisro who hosted me and I owe him my life!
We ourselves need to analyze, how much Hakaras ha’tov do we owe to Hashem who provides us with everything we have. We must take the time to analyze the gifts of health, family, sustenance etc. for us to be able to be makir tov properly. This is an opportune time for me to thank the editor for hosting my article, and to the readers for reading it!
{Matzav.com}
