Recognize the Good, Recognize the Godly - Rabbi Mordechai Burg

one of the most central ideas in all of judaism is the notion of akara satov recognizing the goodness that akatosh baraku has done for us recognizing the goodness that other people have done for us the question is why we make such a big deal about this expressing our gratitude for those that have done good for us to live is to give when we give towards others when we do for others when we act in the service of other people that's expressing the most godly aspect of ourselves the truth of the matter is that our body is selfish naturally it seeks to survive because it knows that one day it's going to die the godly soul wants to give the godly soul is life and to live means to give it means to do good for others so when we do good for others we're not just doing good we're doing godly we're bringing our godly soul into the world we're making it real and when other people don't recognize that when they don't express their gratitude it's not just that they're kafuetov it's not just that they haven't recognized the good thing that we did in a certain way they've diminished our existence because we brought our most godly self into being for them and they didn't recognize that that's exceptionally painful because in a certain way it means that our life wasn't really important didn't really matter it wasn't just another act of service when we express our gratitude to other people it's saying i see you you're here you're real what you do is important you are important and we all need that kavod is something we have to run away from but it's something that other people need to chase us with when people are makhabitas by giving us gratitude and saying thank you so much for doing what you did they're not just thanking us for what we did they're giving us life they're giving us highest we have to run away from it because to run after it is arrogant but it's other people's job to treat us with the respect that they would want to be treated with and that means recognizing that we are alive and the same thing is true when it comes to hakadosh barachu how do you think hakadosh baruch feels he does so much for us he gives us everything we wouldn't even be here without him we would be nothing without him and on top of that when we think about the myriad of gifts that akhodash baruch who gives us how could we do anything but to recognize baruch's reality in this world so a failure to give thanks and appreciation is not just lacking gratitude it's a failure to recognize hakadosh baruch's presence in our lives how painful must that be for our kodeshwar so to speak the challenge is that for us giving gratitude sometimes an act of vulnerability because it says somebody else did something for me but that too requires a godly soul to be able to say i am enough i have an infinite godly soul inside of myself i am enough and i can recognize that a godly being has done something godly for me we can only do that if we're in touch with our godly soul so someone came with their godly soul and did a godly thing for us we have to access our godly soul and say thank you in so doing we have two meetings of the soul that's where intimacy is created we can create oneness in this world when we put ourselves out there and we give to others and when others put themselves out there by being makartov to us in that way we can create true shalom true harmony in this world how often do husbands and wives feel like they're being taken for granted how often do friends feel like they're being taken for granted it's not just that we haven't expressed our gratitude we're missing opportunities to let them know they are important they have weight kavod from a lotion of cavead they have value in this world that's our responsibility so as we finish up the month of auv and we start heading into the month of ell let's think about how we create harmony not only with each other but also with that kadosh marvel and that should be the greatest source for us as we enter into these the days of awe the days of el of chuva of returning to of returning to the godliness that is within ourselves you