11 Jul PARASHAT MATOT: SHOWING APPRECIATION

In Parashat Matot,
G-d commands
Moshe to lead a war
against Midyan, who
initiated a scheme to
lead Beneh Yisrael to sin which resulted
in the deaths of thousands of people
among the nation. The Midrash notes
that whereas G-d instructed Moshe
to wage this war, he did not go out to
battle. Instead, he sent 12,000 men led
by Pinhas to fight Midyan, while he
remained behind. How, the Midrash
asks, could Moshe Rabbenu shirk his
responsibility? If G-d commanded
him to go and wage war, how could he
delegate this difficult task to others?
The Midrash offers a remarkable
answer. Moshe owed a debt of gratitude
to Midyan, where he found refuge when
he was forced to flee from Egypt many
years earlier. As we read in Parashat
Shemot, Moshe killed an Egyptian
taskmaster who was beating an Israelite
slave, and Pharaoh heard about the
incident and sought to kill Moshe.
Moshe immediately fled and found
safety in Midyan, where he married the

daughter of Yitro and worked for him
as a shepherd. Moshe owed his life to
Midyan, and it would thus have been
inappropriate for him to lead a war
against it.
Moshe did not arrive at this logic on his
own. He reached this conclusion on the
basis of G-d’s commands many years
earlier during the ten plagues. G-d
commanded that specifically Aharon –
as opposed to Moshe – should turn the
water of Egypt into blood, and produce
vermin from its dust. It would have been
improper for Moshe to strike the water,
which protected him when he was an
infant and his mother placed him in a
basket in the river to save him from
the Egyptians, and to strike the earth,
which he used to cover the remains of
the taskmaster whom he killed. The
fundamental value of gratitude dictates
that one does not “throw a rock into
the well from which he drank,” that we
must not cause harm to those who have
been good to us. And thus even though
G-d wished to strike the water and
earth of Egypt, He did not want Moshe
to carry out this task, given the debt of

gratitude he owed.
Recalling this precedent, Moshe
understood that he was not the one
to wage battle against Midyan. He
realized that when G-d instructed him
to go out to war, He meant that Moshe
should mobilize and send an army,
rather than go fight himself.
The Torah value of gratitude extends
even to sworn enemies of our nation
– like Midyan – and even to inanimate
objects – such as water and earth.
It is told that Rav Yisrael Gustman, who
served as a Rosh Yeshiva in Jerusalem,
would water the plants and bushes
outside his yeshiva each day. When
asked about this practice, he explained
that he survived the Holocaust, spending
a considerable amount of time hiding in
fields. He felt a deep sense of gratitude
to bushes and plants for helping him
escape from the Nazis, and he thus felt
it was appropriate to personally care for
the yeshiva’s garden.
If this is the Torah’s attitude when
it comes to plants, then it certainly

applies to family members and friends.
If Moshe owed a debt of gratitude to
the waters of Egypt, shouldn’t we
show appreciation to our spouses? If
Moshe was to show respect to dirt for
the service it provided him, shouldn’t
we respect the people who work for
us? If Moshe felt grateful to a wicked
nation like Midyan, shouldn’t we be
profoundly grateful to our parents, our
siblings, our friends and our neighbors?
The story of this war should thus serve
as an important reminder to all of us to
always take note of the favors done for
us, of all the benefit we receive from
other people, and to feel a sincere sense
of gratitude which ought to be regularly
expressed in both words and actions.