Vayetze – True Thanksgiving

By Rabbi Ezra Friedman

Analogies are one of the most common tools used by our Sages to teach Jewish values. In the Midrash Piskta Rabati (13) our Sages give an analogy that expresses the relationship between Am Yisrael  and Hashem. A young boy is being carried on his father’s shoulders.  The father carries his son through markets and buildings and the son feels on top of the world. One day as his father walks though the market, the young son turns to a merchant and asks him, “Have you seen my father?” When the father heard that, he immediately threw his son to the ground. The moral of this story is that Am Yisrael is the young boy who is being carried by Hashem day after day. If we are always aware of Hashem, we are always held up high. However, if we forget even for a moment, Hashem could throw us into the depths of despair. The most difficult thing in life is to always recognize the abundance Hashem has given us and to never take it for granted. This lesson can be learnt from our matriarch Leah.

When Leah has her fourth son she proclaimed (Breishit 29, 35):

וַתַּ֨הַר ע֜וֹד וַתֵּ֣לֶד בֵּ֗ן וַתֹּ֙אמֶר֙ הַפַּ֙עַם֙ אוֹדֶ֣ה אֶת־יְהוָ֔ה עַל־כֵּ֛ן קָרְאָ֥ה שְׁמ֖וֹ יְהוּדָ֑ה וַֽתַּעֲמֹ֖ד מִלֶּֽדֶת׃

She conceived again and bore a son, and declared, “This time I will praise the LORD.” Therefore she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing.

She praised  Hashem  and expressed gratitude. What was unique about Yehudah‘s birth that caused this reaction? The Midrash (Breishit Rabba 75, 4) explains that Leah was sure she would only give birth to three children. Her logic was that she prophesied that Yaakov Avinu would have 12 children, the future 12 tribes of   Am Yisrael. Leah assumed that each of Yaakov’s four wives would three children. When she saw that she received more than her share, she was overjoyed and as a result she praised Hashem for the blessing of a fourth child.

This answer seems very difficult to understand for two reasons. Every Jew is taught that we must thank Hashem for every detail of our lives.  According to this idea. it would seem that Leah should have praised   Hashem  for every child she bore  and not just for receiving more than her share. Another perplexing aspect is that fact that our Sages learn from this verse that Leah was the first in history to give thanks to Hashem. However, in previous  Parshiot we saw that Noach  Avraham  and Malki Tzedek  praised Hashem  for his goodness.

The  Ktav Sofer answers the second question. He explains that even though the Torah writes of others who had expressed thanksgiving to  Hashem, those instances were all for events that were supernatural, as opposed to Leah who praised  Hashem for a natural event. However, according to the  Ktav Sofer the first question remains unanswered.

Perhaps, we have to look deeper into Leah’s thanksgiving. We should always thank  Hashem  for every detail of our lives.  In each of our three daily  Tefilot we thank  Hashem profusely, however Leah’s praise was on a totally different level. When Leah saw that she had been blessed with her fourth child, she didn’t simply thank   Hashem since her thanksgiving was never taken for granted. She proclaimed to   Hashem that she was so thankful that her appreciation would resonate every moment, and that she would remember and always cherish the great gift   Hashem  gave her. A simple proof that this is the case is in the wording of the verse. When  Leah expresses her gratitude she names her son after her feeling of thanksgiving. She was expressing to   Hashem  that her son’s life would be a reminder of the great gift she had received. Whenever she would cry out to her son  Yehuda, when he would take his first step, when she would watch him play, Leah would remember that moment when she first held him and called him  Yehuda. Leah may have not been the first person to express gratitude, but she was the first person to make that gratitude a part of her life.

We as Jews have so much to be thankful for, yet most of the time our thanksgiving lasts only a few moments. Leah’s actions teach us that true thanksgiving lasts forever. Sander Fried, an elderly man, was among a small group of Chassidim who rebuilt the Belzer Chasidut after WWII. He came to Eretz Yisrael after the war and work tiredly to build institutions, appoint a Rebbe, and continue with the tradition of his forefathers. His father, mother, and eleven siblings were all brutally murdered in the Holocaust. He was once asked how he was able to overcome such trauma and rebuild the Belzer tradition? He answered that every morning after they took his family to Auschwitz he would sing, “Everything will be good, everything passes, after December comes May”. When we embody gratitude on such a high level, any obstacle can be overcome. Just as Leah was able to show true thanksgiving every time she saw her son, we must look at our lives and never take for granted how blessed we truly are