Q. Is Hakaras HaTov(recognizing and thanking for a favor received) a mitzvah in the Torah?
Last year Chanukah we provided my sons Rebbe with Chanukah Gelt, with a nice hand written card, and we didn’t get any response of Thank you. The same thing happened at the end of the year, when we wanted to show our appreciation for teaching our son for the year. Does a person ‘have’ to say thank you…?
Thank you very much for your answers each week.
(Would one transgress on a prohibition of ‘Lifnei Iver” or placing a stumbling block in front of one that does not care to commit a sin, in the case above?).
A. Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is that Hakoras Hatov or recognizing and thanking for a good and favor done to us, is a basic and most important ‘Midda Tova” or good character trait, that is reflected by many mitzvos. However, not complying with it is not a transgression of one of the positive or negative mitzvos of the Torah and therefore ‘Lifnei Iver” would not apply.
On question 3352 we wrote: “Horav Aharon Miller Shlit’a pointed out that feelings or ‘Middos,’ as we often also call them. can be very detrimental and damaging and they can be the cause and source of many faults and sins. Anger, lust, laziness, or haughtiness, just to mention a few of the long list, are indeed the reason and ground for the averos and mistakes we make. Yet, interestingly, as Baalei Mussar and Poskim point out, the feelings by themselves are often not sins, as they can and should be used for the right purposes and mitzvot.”
You may ask someone to respectfully and in a proper way remind the Rebbe to also comply with this important good ‘Midda Tova”.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller and Horav Aharon Miller Shlit’a