מה אעשה לעם הזה
עוד מעט וסקלוני
End of Parshat BeShalach

This page is still under construction.

Poor Moses. He saved the people from slavery. He brought them out of Egypt. He was about to take them to the Promised Land. He sacrificed a great deal for a job that he didn't want in the first place. And the Jews did nothing but complain. There are people like that and unfortunately among our fellow Jews we have more than enough people who are ungrateful.

Gratefulness - הכרת הטוב - is one of the qualities that Jews are expected to have and should have, but it is missing in all too many cases.

There are some people for whom nothing will help no matter what you do for them they're not happy and no matter what you do for them they will not see it as a favor or as something good.

Surprisingly, the method does work in many cases. Many people see that the people are ungrateful so those who surround them in many cases try harder to do more in order to make the people grateful.

It usually doesn't work. Some people are not going to be grateful. Some people are not going to appreciate anything that you do for them.

Children are often like that. Parents do everything in order to raise the children the way that they would like to do it, the way they want to see them grow up, and sometimes the children do appreciate it, but in all too many cases the children are ungrateful.

In many cases this lack of gratefulness is caused by one of several factors.

Insecurity. The people are afraid that if they show that gratefulness then others will wonder why they are acting in that way.

Really now, would it hurt to say a good word to somebody who does something nice to you? Would it bother you to do that? Is it difficult to do that? Apparently, for some people the answer is that it is difficult. They expect things to be done for them automatically without a word of appreciation.

Others who when you show a word of appreciation they say, "Whoops, now I feel embarrassed by it," and they will stop doing the nice things that caused you to give them that word of appreciation. They too are ungrateful.

Still others feel that they do things for other people. It's a reasonable tradeoff and therefore there's no reason to be grateful. Yes, that doesn't seem to make too much sense but this seems to be the strange approach.

On the other hand, a nice kind word from somebody means much more than they realize and these ungrateful people are missing out on a lot.

Don't try to educate them though. It is not likely to help. They are going to remain ungrateful even after you tell them about the way that other people feel. It won't help.

Of all of the personality traits listed in this section ungratefulness is one of the most difficult to cure. This is something deeply entrenched and embedded in some people and this is apparently the way that they are going to be.

It's sad.