Kindness Hacks from Tzav

One of the offerings mentioned in this weeks Parsha is the Korban Todah- the Thanksgiving Offering.

Rooted into the genetic makeup of the Jewish people, is the ability to thank. This is denoted within the essence of our Hebrew name ‘Yehudim’ which is connected to the word ‘hoda-ah-thanks’.

Rav Hutner zt’l makes a very interesting point. The noun ‘hoda- ah’ can mean both ‘give thanks’ and also to ‘admit’.
This is no coincidence.

In order for a person to give ‘thanks’, he needs to first be able to ‘admit’ that he needed help!

Humans are born with an instinct for independence, and therefore often don’t want to ‘admit’ needing help. Needing helps means admitting to vulnerability and to not being perfect. We can go so far as to trick ourselves and deny that we received good!

The first step to gratitude, is admitting that we needed the help in the first place.

Once we accept this, we can then move on to expressing our sincere thanks to the one who has helped us.

The Medrash tells us that in the future other offerings will become nullified, there will be no need to bring them. But there will always be a Thanksgiving Offering for “Todah” will never be nullified.

There’s always a need to give thanks.

Be humble, be vulnerable.
Be grateful.

Shabbat Shalom!

P.S now more than ever is a time to focus on expressing gratitude. Whether it's carers, friends, supermarket workers etc...
One of my favourite projects that i saw done this week was people leaving a note to say thank you to the guys who collect the rubbish! (They even wrote back :) )

Lilui nishmas Tzvi ben Shimon Halevi