One of the greatest and most sublime of human traits is showing gratitude.
I spoke recently with a friend who has been doing a lot of fighting in Gaza. He expressed his great appreciation to President Donald Trump for all of the material that the IDF has been receiving since the president returned to office. D9 tractors, bombs,F-35s, additional weaponry, and most importantly international support. “No humanitarian aid has entered for weeks and nobody says a word because the Trump administration has our back.” And he is right. For weeks, no trucks have entered Gaza and there is still enough food for the residents. I had a professor at Harvard who said that in the event of a nuclear war, New England pantries had a supply of food for two weeks. Gaza is ahead of Boston.
One of the greatest human traits is gratitude. Its importance involves a person firstly leaving himself. We are so self-absorbed and with our little devices, we can live hermetically alone for long periods of time. So, in order to give thanks, one has to recognize that there is someone outside of himself. Beyond that, the person needs to recognize that the other has done him some good or favor. We often don’t appreciate the good others do for us. Israelis are truly appreciative of all of the support that the US provides for Jews and the country. “Hakarat ha’tov” means giving thanks to someone who has done good for you. Zelensky always approached the US with an attitude that it owes him, and it took hot tongs for President Trump to get him to say thank you.
Last week, I put out a piece noting that those on the left always seem to be angry. Whether it be anti-Elon Musk Tesla destroyers or the paid pro-Hamas protesters on campus, there always seems to be an air of fury in their actions and words. Fists raised, voices hoarse from screaming—these people always seem enraged. But beyond that, they always seem to be complaining that somebody owes them something. Reparations! The right to stay in the country illegally! Give back my government money! Let me work at home forever! One rarely hears a word of gratitude from those on the left. Rather, when their mouths are open, it is usually to make demands or declare that they deserve better.
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This state of affair has been standard for the Palestinians for decades. From when I was a little kid, they were always demanding: give us land! Give us money! Settle our people in Israel! And so on. One of the most massive mistakes of the misbegotten Oslo Accords was that it demanded a huge amount from Israel and virtually nothing from the Palestinians. Israel was to cede land, provide money and weapons to the fledgling Palestinian Authority (PA) and put Jewish communities in the West Bank and Gaza at risk for a chance for peace. What did the Palestinians have to give? Nothing. They had to promise to give up on terror and reduce incitement in their school textbooks. Neither happened because they are both ephemeral. “Be nicer.” Okay, go put that one on a scientific scale of 1-10. The Palestinians had become used to and further doubled down on demanding without giving or expressing any gratitude. Listen to Hamas. They’ve had their derrieres kicked but they are always dictating terms: all IDF soldiers out! The Philadelphi Corridor back in our hands! 1,000 trucks of aid every day! And so on. One would not expect gratitude from psychopathic rapists and murderers. But like their ideological brethren in the West, they only know how to demand.
There was a story of a very big rabbi who lived in New York. On the occasion of the birth of a great grandson, he visited his granddaughter’s apartment. Around twenty minutes after leaving, he returned in his wheelchair to thank the non-Jewish nurse who had taken care of his granddaughter after giving birth. Having thanked her personally, he once again left. That is gratitude. Do we thank those who help us when we need it? Do we thank those who took a chance on us when others refused to do so? Do we thank those who put food on our tables or make sure that we have clean clothes to wear tomorrow? Thanking God for having cash in our pockets or food in our bellies does not mean that we should not thank the boss for the paycheck or mom for making such yummy food.
The left has shown many signs of psychosis over the past decade. From guys insisting on dressing up as girls to their actively taking women’s sports trophies, from deranged people defacing or burning Teslas, we see mental problems on the left. But one additional issue is their absolute belief that they are owed something. When Donald Trump cuts down illegal alien and fentanyl entry into the US, you never hear a word of thanks from those on the left (with the exception, to his credit, of Bernie Sanders). When Elon Musk and the DOGE gang save a quarter trillion dollars of our tax money, you don’t hear Democrats saying how wonderful their successes are; if anything, you hear their demands that the pork, fraud, waste, and self-dealing be put right back where they found it. When foreigners who threaten and harass Jews on campus or citizens at home are given free one-way tickets back to Crapistan, they demand that the cretins be left in the US to create more havoc. Their mental illness is so advanced that if President Trump were to buy them a cup of coffee or paint their homes, they would refuse to say the magic words, “Thank you.”
Gratitude is not just a social construct to make society run more smoothly. It is a realization that my life involves many others, and when one does good for me, I should show my appreciation, because in reality they don’t owe me a thing. Two months after the suicide bombing, our son had surgery in Tel Aviv to remove shrapnel in his head. Before the operation, we wanted to take him out for a boat ride. When we got to the marina, we were told that all of the boats there were private. A policeman from a separate police dock came over to ask what we were looking for. We explained the situation and he told us to jump aboard. He took us out into the Mediterranean, where he gave the wheel to our son and put on the siren and flashing lights. A shotgun hung over the windshield. If a seven year old could imagine heaven, this was it. We gave our great thanks and dashed off to the hospital. When the surgery was over and our son was asleep, it was one in the morning. I realized that I was famished. I went to the parents’ room to sleep and there was a tuna sandwich sitting on the table, put there by a chassidic group that helps those in need. Was I ever thankful at that moment for that sandwich.
One sees from Donald Trump and his associates a great deal of gratitude. Many of them are not ashamed to thank God publicly; this includes the president, who has stated that his surviving assassination attempts was a gift from God. Those who Donald Trump chose to run executive offices were often political foes of the president; still, he gave them the keys and upon being confirmed they each expressed their gratitude for the president putting his faith in them. Gratitude—it is possibly the best single measure of the quality of a person.
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