Within the pages of the book of Shemot / Exodus in our Holy Torah, we are given a lesson in gratitude hidden within the text for us to discover and receive as an instruction from God to apply to our lives.

(Shemot / Exodus 2:11-12) “One day, when Moshe was a grown man, he went out to visit his kinsmen; and he watched them struggling at forced labour. He saw an Egyptian strike a Hebrew, one of his kinsmen. He looked this was and that; and when he saw that no one was around, he killed the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand.”

(Shemot / Exodus 8:12(16)-13(17)) “HaShem said to Moshe, Say to Aharon: ‘Reach out with your staff and strike the dust on the ground; it will become lice throughout the land of Egypt.’” They did it – Aharon reached out hid hand with his staff and struck the dust on the ground, and there were lice on people and animals; all the dust on the ground became lice throughout the land of Egypt.”

At first, upon reading these two portions of scripture, many will ask, what is the relation between these verses and how can we possibly receive a lesson in gratitude? There is a natural element of the earth that was used in each portion by God to serve a purpose, both in the life of Moshe and for us today, this element is sand/the dust of the earth.

A classical commentary to this portion of scripture is found in the writings of Rashi in his commentary to Exodus / Shemot 8:12 “Say to Aaron. Like the plague of blood, this one could not be brought about by Moses. Since the dust of the land had protected him from discovery when he had used it to conceal the dead Egyptian (2:12), it would have been ungrateful of him to smite the earth (Rashi).

To us sand is just a lifeless element of the earth that we would never think twice about, however in Gods ultimate plan, it served a much deeper purpose. Everything God does is with a purpose and according to His divine and holy plan that was set out before the foundation of the earth and revealed through His Torah. It was no accident that God commanded Moses to say to Aaron strike the ground, because God could have easily commended Moses to do so. It is clear that God wanted Moses to remember and be thankful for what the sand did for him when it hid the Egyptian he killed when he avenged the blood of his fellow Israelite.

We need to be thankful for everything in life, both the inanimate/lifeless elements that God uses to bring about blessings in our life and most important the people we have in our lives. If God wanted Moses to remain grateful to something as insignificant as the dust of the earth, imagine how much God expects us to be grateful for the people He sends into our life to mould and shape us into the men and women of God we were created to be. We need to show gratitude to all people God puts into our life, sand has no feelings that could be crushed when we walk on it, but people do and it is a bad testimony of the love of God within us as believers in Yeshua to be hostile and repulsive to a precious soul in need of the salvation of the God of Israel.

(Mattityahu/Matthew 5:43-48) “You have heard that our fathers were told, ‘Love your neighbour’ – and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! Then you will become children of your Father in heaven. For He makes His sun shine on good and bad people alike, and He sends rain to the righteous and the unrighteous alike. What reward do you get if you love only those who love you? Why, even tax-collectors do that! And if you are friendly only to your friends, are you doing anything out of the ordinary? Even the Goyim do that! Therefore, be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Here we received a very deep and insightful teaching from our Master and Rabbi Yeshua. We are being taught to not only show gratitude to our friends and those who love us, but also to our enemies and those who hate us. Our Father in heaven is perfect and our Messiah Yeshua is perfect because He is One with the Father, we are commanded as followers of Yeshua to also be perfect in our everyday conduct with our neighbours, both the ones who love and hate us. We see everyday people who deny God and hate Him and don’t even believe in Him and all His glory and yet they are still blessed abundantly, Yeshua teaches us that Our Father does this and it is an example set for us to do the same because there is no reward if we only love and bless those who love us. Our enemies shape and mould us as believers in the God of Israel and His Messiah Yeshua and we need to pray for them and their salvation and revelation to the truth of God within His Holy Torah.

Gratitude is essential for us to internalize and apply in all areas of life, as we have just learned to both our friends, and enemies, those who love and hate us. This is the true Torah or instructions for living from the God of Israel, and there is no other way or Torah to live by. When we look at our tzitzits and our mezuzahs  as reminders of the Torah, we need to deeply understand and internalize within our hearts, minds and souls, what these things represent because if we just look them as just some kind of lucky charm then it becomes an idol in our life and we will just be fooling ourselves in warring them or placing them on our doors because God intended them to be reminders of the Torah, both the outer physical applications and the inner spiritual elements that govern our hearts, minds and souls.

(Yesha’yahu/Isaiah 45:7) “I form light, I create darkness; I make well-being, I create woe; I, HaShem, do all these things.”

We need to also show gratitude for all the good and bad in our lives because it is all the work of God as we see in the portion of scripture from Isaiah above. God is our loving father and He desires to bless us, but just like any Father, He will also send hard times to correct us and bring us back to a life of holiness. We need to be thankful to God and show gratitude when we have good times and also the bad because whatever bad that happened, it could have been a lot worse, but God is merciful and will only bring as much trouble as we can handle at one time. His desire is to correct us and bring us closer to Him and not to torture us for any reason; God has a purpose in everything He does.

(Rabbi Shalom Arush – The Garden of Peace: page 180) “Without gratitude to the agents of Hashem’s kindness, he will never be able to be grateful to Hashem Himself, the true source of loving kindness.” “It is therefore forbidden to treat anything that has benefited or served us in any way with disrespect”

God uses anything and everything to fulfill His purposes here on earth and in each and everyone one of our lives. His agents could include compounds such as sand in the case of Moses and the Egyptian, or it could be the people we encounter in our everyday lives, whether family, friends, or the strangers of the streets including our known and unknown enemies. We need to be thankful for everything because God created it and is using it to fulfill His purpose in our lives to manifest the desires of our hearts according to His will. Our Father in Heaven loves us His children as well as those who hate Him and us, we need to emulate our Father the same way our Messiah and Master Yeshua did, in order to be His true disciples. It is forbidden for us to not show gratitude for everything and everyone who comes into our lives because it is all the work of our Father in Heaven, whether Jews or God fearing Christians (non-Jews) alike, we are all Bible believers and part of Israel, either as the olive tree or grafted in. We have one Torah and one God we serve and if we go any other way, we bring the risk upon ourselves of being cut off as God has warned us many times in His Torah. Therefore gratitude is a fundamental commandment for us to internalize and apply for every great and small event of our lives.

(Rabbi Shalom Arush – The Garden of Peace: page 181) “Rebbe Nachman writes in Sefer HaMidot (Benefitting from others): “Somebody that you benefitted from once, don’t shame him.” Though it is forbidden to shame anyone, it is far worse to shame a person who has been kind to us, since this shows a lack of gratitude.”

We have all benefitted from all kinds of people in one way or another in our pasts, so we need to maintain a sense of gratitude to all peoples from all backgrounds who have helped as Gods agents to shape and mould us into the disciples of Yeshua we are today. Even the backgrounds we all have come from, whether it is a secular one, a past filled with substance abuse, or various religious backgrounds such as Orthodox Judaism or Christianity, although both don’t have the full truth, neither do we but it is our goal we are pursuing in order to serve God better. So we also need to show a gratitude to our pasts because it was all the work of God and His agents in order to shape and mould us into who we are today and it is completely forbidden for us to be ashamed of our backgrounds because it was God’s plan for His glory in our lives. It is also even more forbidden to shame the people of our past or even in our lives today who have benefitted us in kindness, even showing anything other than love to our enemies is forbidden as our Rabbi Yeshua has commanded us.

The secret to lasting joy and blessings in our lives as believers in Yeshua is gratitude for everything in our lives. We need to thank God for everything because it is for our good and His glory, because God makes no mistakes, but we do and the biggest one is a lack of gratitude for what God is doing in our lives and the agents He uses to fulfill His purpose. If you are lacking joy in your life, look deep into your heart, mind and soul and really meditate on the concept of gratitude and see whether you are truly grateful for everything and everyone God puts into our lives. There is no other way to lasting joy and blessings in our lives, shaming others when we need to show gratitude will do nothing but make you look like a fool. It will also be a bad testimony for us as disciples of Yeshua and the Holiness of the Torah and the love and grace it contains. Therefore, the next time you grab your tzitzits in prayer, or touch the mezuzahs on your door posts, remember to be grateful for everything and everyone God sends into our lives and be a light shining the fullness of the love of the Holy Torah of the Almighty God of Israel.