When Miriam dies the well that has been following the Jews in the wilderness disappears. The well was in her merit. The people immediately complain to Moses forgetting all the good things that they were getting. In short, they were very ungrateful for all that they were getting.

Gratitude and Parshat Chukat

And now for a quick devar Torah.

In this week’s parshah, Chukat, Miriam dies. Immediately afterward, the well that had accompanied the Jewish people for almost forty years suddenly disappears. According to our tradition, that miraculous well existed in Miriam’s merit. Think about that for a moment. For four decades, wherever the Jewish people traveled in the wilderness, the well traveled with them. They had a constant source of water in the middle of a desert.

Yet as soon as the well disappears, the people begin to complain.

What’s striking is how quickly they forget everything they had. They had water from the well. They had manna falling from heaven every day. They were protected by the Clouds of Glory. God was providing for them in ways that no nation had ever experienced before. But once one blessing was removed, all they could see was what they lacked.

This teaches us something important about human nature. Gratitude is not always our strongest quality, especially when we become accustomed to receiving something. Once a blessing becomes routine, we stop seeing it as a blessing.

There’s a wonderful line in Fiddler on the Roof. In the opening scene, a beggar is given a kopeck. Instead of saying thank you, he complains.

“Last week you gave me two kopecks.”

The man replies, “I had a bad week.”

And the beggar answers, “So because you had a bad week, I should suffer?”

It’s funny because it captures a very human tendency. We focus on what we’re not getting instead of appreciating what we already have.

Later in the parshah, Aaron dies as well. Moses has now lost both his sister and his brother. The people continue complaining, and God tells Moses to speak to the rock. Instead, Moses strikes it.

Moses is punished because a leader is expected to maintain self-control. Yet we can understand his frustration. After everything he, Aaron, and Miriam had done for the people, the complaints never seemed to stop.

There’s a famous Israeli comedy sketch where a comedian pretends to be Moshe Rabbeinu. He says, “Any other nation would have left Egypt and reached the Land of Israel in a few weeks. You people spent the whole trip telling me which way to go.”

Then he jokes that when the manna came down from heaven, instead of celebrating free food, the people started asking, “Is there gluten-free manna? Is there diet manna?”

The humor works because it reflects a timeless truth. Human beings often fail to appreciate blessings until they disappear.

We’re grateful for our health only after we become sick. We’re grateful for freedom only when it is threatened. We take family, friends, opportunities, and even simple daily comforts for granted because they’ve always been there.

People often complain about how difficult life is economically, yet most of us live with comforts that kings in Europe could not have imagined five hundred years ago. We have access to food, transportation, medicine, communication, and conveniences that previous generations would have considered miraculous.

Parshat Chukat reminds us to stop and notice the blessings before they disappear. Gratitude is not simply saying thank you. It is learning to recognize God’s gifts while we still have them.

If we become grateful for the little things that come our way each day, we will appreciate life more, appreciate the people around us more, and appreciate God more as well.

Something to think about.