This past Sunday, December 31, men 40 and above came streaming into 284 Mott Avenue, the home of the newly located Rambam Mesivta. They came to participate in the Annual Learn-a-Thon, the Rambam learning experience that began in 1992 and has a long-standing history. Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman, Rosh Mesivta, jokingly said that the day is Erev 19 Teves and we should remember to say Tachnun at Mincha. On a more serious but personal note, he mentioned it was a nachas day for him as a former individual who sat in front of him as a talmid in 1997 was the day’s guest speaker. He introduced Rabbi Ruben Gober, currently a rebbe at YBT in Far Rockaway, who spoke aptly about hakaras hatov. It soon became clear that Rabbi Friedman referring to Rabbi Gober as a star was about more than being an integral part of the championship team of the past, but rather a clear reference to his Talmudic prowess and powerful presentation.
After talmidim davened and had a sumptuous breakfast courtesy of Women’s League, they prepared mareh mekomos with the fathers, grandfathers, or brothers, as appropriate. Rabbi Gober then launched into his shiur on hakaras hatov in halacha and hashkafah, analyzing the concept of hakaras hatov. He started by sharing the appreciation we should all have for those in Eretz Yisroel on the front lines who sacrifice so much to defend and preserve klal Yisroel. He explained the Chazal that states that one who can’t express appreciation for the deeds and chesed of others, oftentimes will have the same difficulty accepting Hashem. His creative explanation was that to the extent there is resistance expressing appreciation to that which is done by others, it is because the person wants to take all the credit for himself and refuses to credit other sources. If the person can’t credit the obvious, he certainly will find a problem paying homage to Hashem who helps us, albeit oftentimes in obscure ways. Hakoras hatov, in essence, is an important midah that helps us overcome our default human attitude of ga’avah – haughtiness. To further this point, he cited from the commentary of Rabeinu Nisim, who states that any seichel, rational human trait becomes a human directive which all Torah Jews must adhere to.
Rabbi Gober concluded his remarks by expressing his hakaras hatov to Rabbi Friedman and Rabbi Haar for showing how Torah is applicable to our lives today. The dad’s day off, once again, proved to be an inspiring educational day!
