Gratitude.  It is a value that we inculcate in our children from early on.  When they receive a gift, they are told to say “thank you.”  Later, we teach them to write a thank you card.  Gratitude is a basic social necessity and nicety.

In this week’s parashah, Ha’azinu, Moses attempts to teach this value to his people who have been the recipients of God’s blessings throughout the 40 years that Moses has been leading them in the wilderness following the miraculous exodus from Egypt and bondage.  Moses has been the midwife attending to the birth of a nation as they left the narrowness of Egypt and emerged into the vastness of the Sinai.  He has been the nursemaid to this infant nation, caring for them, cleaning up after them, teaching them.  He has raised them to the point that they could finally consider entering the Promised Land and settling down as a mature, independent people.

All along, however, he (as have we the readers) has been witness to a pattern of behavior that is quite disturbing.  Though they are the beneficiaries of great miracles and many blessings, the people seem to have a difficult time developing a sense of gratitude, no matter how many times Moses attempts to teach this important value to them.

As they stand on the threshold of the Promised Land and as Moses nears the time when he is to ascend the mountain to view the Promised Land he will never enter, Moses is concerned about his people’s fate.  He is concerned that the pattern of ingratitude that has developed over the past forty years will continue to manifest itself over the next decades and centuries.  He fears that this land of plenty will lull them into a false sense of security and self-satisfaction, that they will forget that all of the blessings of the land and of life on the land come from outside of themselves, not only from their own hard work.  “So Yeshurun (from the word that means “straight”) grew fat and kicked . . . [and] forsook the God who made him,” Moses warns them with a glimpse into the future that could easily be when a people are no longer grateful. 

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As we prepare to celebrate the joyous festival of Succot, a holiday that celebrates the success of the harvest as well as the Divine care and protection that was provided to our ancestors in the wilderness, Moses’ words ring true.  It is easy to look at all that we have in our lives today and to say that they were obtained due to our own efforts, that we are self-made people.  It is easy to eat, to be satisfied and to forget to thank God for the multitude of blessings that we enjoy in our lives.  So many of us take these blessings for granted – until, God forbid, they are taken from us.  We still have to learn the lesson of gratitude.  Succot was the festival on which the pilgrims modeled the American holiday of Thanksgiving, the American festival of gratitude! 

Moses calls heaven and earth to listen to his words, but he really wants us to hear them and to act on them.  For all of our blessings, let us remember to say thanks.