Daily Hakarat HaTov#5

There are two famous Rashi’s which refer to the idea of hakarat hatov. In connection with some of the makos, Hashem tells Moshe to do an action which will, in a sense, bring the makah onto the Mitzrim. However, by the makos of dam, tzfardeah, and kinim, Hashem tells Moshe to say to Aharon that he should do the action .

Rashi explains why Moshe was not supposed to do these actions himself. Rashi writes,
“Say to Aharon because the river protected Moshe when he was thrown into in and therefore the river was not smitten by his hand neither by dam nor tzfardeah. ”
Similarly, regarding kinim, Rashi writes,
“Say to Aharon- the soil did not deserve to be stricken by Moshe because it protected him when he hit the Mitzri and hid him in the sand .”

It seems strange that Moshe has some sort of debt or obligation of hakaras hatov to the land or water; the land and water do not have emotions or feelings, they certainly do not appreciate Moshe’s sensitivity. What is the point? Obviously, the answer is that this is supposed to teach a lesson to Moshe and to us. If a person has some sort of obligation to show hakaras hatov to inanimate objects, then kal v’chomer, all the more so, that we need to have hakaras hatov to people who do things for us. This is one of the lessons of the makos. We have to be careful how we treat people. We need to thank them when they do things for us. ..B.Ginsburg