Hakaras HaTov and “Ki Tov”: The Purpose of Creation

Topics

• Why Does the Torah Tell Us How the World Was Created?
• “Ki Tov” — Learning to See the Good
• Hashem Creates the Need Before He Gives the Gift
• The Purpose of Creation: To Recognize and Thank
• Hakaras HaTov and the First Step of Teshuvah
• A Yid Is a Yehudi — A Person of Hodaah
• Before a Command, There Must Be a Commander
• Adam's “Anochi” Was Hakaras HaTov
• “Arami Oved Avi” — The History Behind Hakaras HaTov
• The Purpose of Creation Is Leheitiv — and to Be Makir the Hatavah
• Why Was the Adamah Cursed?
• The Curse Forces Man to Recognize the Giver
• The Avodah of Bereishis

Transcript

## Why Does the Torah Tell Us How the World Was Created?

The Torah gives us every detail of Maaseh Bereishis: what was created on the first day, what came on the second day, and how the world was built step by step. I have always wondered: why do I need to know all of this?

Rashi asks why the Torah did not begin with the first mitzvah, **“HaChodesh hazeh lachem”** (Shemos 12:2), and explains why it was necessary to begin with **“Bereishis bara Elokim”** (Rashi to Bereishis 1:1). Fine—we need to know that Hashem created the world. But why must I know *how* He created it, with every detail and every stage?

I believe the answer is that the manner of creation is itself a **hakdamah to Torah and mitzvos**. It is not enough to know that Hashem made the world. I must learn to appreciate what went into the world He gave me.

I heard a story about the Alter of Slabodka. One Friday night he came to the doorway of his house, placed his hand on the mezuzah, and stood there thinking. His family assumed he was immersed in some lofty thought about Shabbos or mezuzah. Later they asked him what he had been thinking.

He explained that he was about to enter and eat the Shabbos seudah. In those days, the meal itself may have been simple—but preparing it was not simple. Someone had to obtain the chicken, bring it for shechitah, clean it, prepare it, cook it, and arrange everything for Shabbos. If he simply walked in and ate, he might never appreciate the effort that had gone into what was placed before him.

So he stopped before entering and thought through the preparation.

That, I believe, is exactly what the Torah is teaching us in Bereishis. Before I enjoy the finished world, I have to stop and see how much Hashem placed into it.

## “Ki Tov” — Learning to See the Good

If everything were simply handed to me complete, I would naturally take it for granted. That is *darko shel adam*. When something is already there, I forget what went into it.

This is why the Torah repeatedly says, **“Vayar Elokim ki tov”**—Hashem saw that it was good (Bereishis 1). Why do I need “ki tov” after one creation and then again after another? Why not wait until the end, when **“Vayechulu hashamayim v'haaretz v'chol tzeva'am”**—the entire creation is complete (Bereishis 2:1)—and then simply tell me that it was good?

Because the Torah wants me to stop at every stage: *ki tov*. This is good. And this is good. And this too is good.

That itself is the introduction to Torah.

Hashem created man to be able to recognize the good of his Creator. If I am going to live a life of Torah and mitzvos, I first need the middah of **hakaras hatov**. I need to see the details of what Hashem gives me and understand that each part is *ki tov*.

I believe this also explains the way the Torah describes the creation of woman. The Torah first says, **“Lo tov heyos ha'adam levado”**—it is not good for man to be alone (Bereishis 2:18). Why did Hashem first create Adam alone? Certainly there was no change of plan.

The Torah wants me to know what the world looks like *without* the gift before giving me the gift.

Had Chavah simply been there from the first moment, Adam could have taken her existence for granted. Instead, the Torah first teaches him: *Lo tov*. Something is missing. Then Hashem gives him what will complete him.

That is how hakaras hatov is born.

## Hashem Creates the Need Before He Gives the Gift

There is a yesod here. In order for me to appreciate what I receive, I first have to recognize that I need it.

Adam is missing his wife. The Torah describes the need before the gift. Chazal explain that woman is taken from man; what he seeks is, in a sense, something that belongs to his own completion. Seeking begins with the realization: **I am missing something.**

We find the same structure with rain.

The Torah tells us that the vegetation had not yet emerged because Hashem had not brought rain, **“v'adam ayin la'avod es ha'adamah”**—there was not yet a man to work the ground (Bereishis 2:5). Rashi explains that there was no one to recognize the goodness of rain and pray for it. Once Adam understood that rain was necessary, he davened, and the rain came.

Why was the world arranged this way?

Because Hashem wanted creation itself to teach man: **you need your Creator**.

If the rain simply came automatically, if everything appeared before I ever experienced a need, I could begin imagining that the world is simply mine. I could forget that I am constantly receiving.

But when I need, seek, daven, and then receive, I know where the gift came from.

That is a yesod of the briah. Hashem created a world in which man must become a *makir*. He must come to Hashem, receive from Hashem, and know that he is receiving from Hashem.

If everything is placed in my hands without that recognition, I begin taking the world for granted—and then the very purpose of creation is lost.

## The Purpose of Creation: To Recognize and Thank

The Ramban at the end of Parashas Bo writes one of the great yesodos of Torah: the purpose of creation is that we recognize Hashem, acknowledge His kindness, and thank Him (Ramban to Shemos 13:16).

That is exactly what I am trying to bring out.

The world was created in a way that trains man to become a **makir tov** and a **modeh**. Hashem shows us the good, but He also allows us to experience what it means not to have it, so that when we receive it, we recognize the gift.

I heard a beautiful observation in this spirit.

After the chet of the Eitz HaDaas, the world had changed. Adam had been punished. Death had entered the world. The ground had been cursed. One could imagine Adam turning to Chavah in anger and saying: Do you understand what happened because of you?

And what does the Torah tell us?

**“Vayikra ha'adam shem ishto Chavah, ki hi haysah eim kol chai”**—Adam called his wife Chavah because she was the mother of all life (Bereishis 3:20).

At the very moment when he could have focused entirely on the destruction, Adam identifies the good. He does not define Chavah only by what went wrong. He says: she is **eim kol chai**.

That is a remarkable middah.

To be a makir tov means that even when there is pain, even when there has been failure, I do not become blind to what Hashem gave me.

The purpose of Bereishis is to train the eye to see *ki tov*—to recognize the good that Hashem placed into the world and into my life.

## Hakaras HaTov and the First Step of Teshuvah

When Hashem confronts Adam after the chet, Adam answers, **“Ha'ishah asher nasata imadi, hi nasnah li min ha'eitz va'ochel”**—“The woman You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate” (Bereishis 3:12).

Chazal are medayek in the word *va'ochel*. The baalei mussar explain that one can hear in Adam's words that the problem has not yet been corrected. Why? Because the first step of teshuvah is responsibility.

Vidui begins with: **I did it.**

As long as I am busy explaining who caused me to do it, I have not yet fully faced the aveirah.

But I believe there is another point here as well. Adam says, **“Ha'ishah asher nasata imadi”**—the woman *You gave me*. Instead of seeing the gift, he turns the gift itself into part of his defense.

That is a lack of hakaras hatov.

And if a person is not a makir tov, I already know something about where he is heading. Mitzvos themselves are built on recognition of the One Who gives. If I cannot appreciate the people who visibly give to me—parents, a spouse, those who care for me—how will I properly appreciate the Ribbono Shel Olam, Whose giving is often hidden behind the natural order?

This is why hakaras hatov is not one pleasant middah among many. It is foundational.

A person who learns to say, “I received,” becomes capable of saying, “I am obligated.”

A person who refuses to recognize what he received will eventually refuse the obligation that comes with it.

That is why the failure of hakaras hatov reaches all the way into teshuvah itself.

## A Yid Is a Yehudi — A Person of Hodaah

Why is a Yid called a **Yehudi**?

Yehudah received his name when Leah said, **“Hapa'am odeh es Hashem”**—“This time I will thank Hashem” (Bereishis 29:35). The very name *Yehudi* carries the language of **hodaah**.

That is not accidental. A Yid is supposed to be a person who knows how to recognize and acknowledge what he receives.

Rashi begins the Torah by teaching that *Bereishis* can be understood as **bishvil Yisrael shenikreu reishis**—the world was created for Yisrael, who are called *reishis* (Rashi to Bereishis 1:1). Chazal also connect the language of *reishis* to the gifts we separate from produce—bikkurim and other matnos that express recognition that the produce ultimately comes from Hashem. I would want the exact Midrashic formulation checked before publication, but the yesod is clear.

The world was created so that there should be a being capable of saying: **this came from You.**

That is true hakaras hatov.

There is a great difference between hakaras hatov and simple courtesy. A person can say “thank you” because it is polite, because society expects it, because it is the proper social response. That is not yet the middah we are discussing.

Hakaras hatov means that the favor changes the way I see the relationship.

I received from you. I recognize that I received from you. And therefore I am no longer exactly where I was before.

That is why hakaras hatov belongs at the very beginning of Torah. Before mitzvos can become obligations in my life, I first have to recognize the One from Whom everything came.

## Before a Command, There Must Be a Commander

There is a well-known discussion among the Rishonim whether **“Anochi Hashem Elokecha”** is itself counted as one of the taryag mitzvos.

Some count it as the mitzvah of emunah. Others understand that *Anochi* is not yet a command. It establishes the most basic fact that must exist before commandments can begin: **there is a Metzaveh**. Hashem is the One Who commands, and therefore His mitzvos obligate me.

Only after **“Anochi Hashem Elokecha”** comes **“Lo yihyeh lecha…”** (Shemos 20:2–3).

This made me wonder about Adam HaRishon.

The first time the Torah records Hashem commanding Adam, it says that Hashem placed him in Gan Eden and then commanded him concerning the trees: **“Mikol eitz hagan achol tochel; u'me'eitz hadaas tov vara lo sochal mimenu”** (Bereishis 2:15–17).

Where is Adam's *Anochi*?

This is Adam's first direct tzivui. Shouldn't Hashem first have said, so to speak: Adam, I am Hashem Elokecha. I am the Metzaveh; you are the metzuveh. Now I am commanding you not to eat from this tree.

Yet the Torah gives us no separate introduction of that kind.

If the Rishonim teach us that command requires a prior establishment of the Commander, why is that missing here?

I believe the answer brings us directly back to hakaras hatov.

## Adam's “Anochi” Was Hakaras HaTov

Look carefully at the Aseres HaDibros.

Hashem does not say only, **“Anochi Hashem Elokecha.”** He says, **“Anochi Hashem Elokecha asher hotzeisicha me'eretz Mitzrayim”**—I am Hashem your God **Who took you out of Egypt** (Shemos 20:2).

The authority of mitzvah is introduced through a gift.

I redeemed you. I took you out. Now listen.

That is hakaras hatov.

Perhaps this is exactly why Adam did not need a separate *Anochi*. His entire existence was the introduction.

Hashem created him. Hashem placed him in Gan Eden. **“Vayikach Hashem Elokim es ha'adam vayanicheihu b'Gan Eden l'avdah u'leshamrah”** (Bereishis 2:15). He was surrounded by the good Hashem had just given him.

That itself was Adam's *Anochi*.

The command not to eat from the Eitz HaDaas came after a reality that should have screamed: **I received everything from Hashem.**

And that is why hakaras hatov belongs inside the very structure of mitzvah. I listen not merely because there is power above me, but because I recognize the One Who gave me everything.

We find the same idea by **bikkurim**. When I bring the first fruits, the Torah does not allow me simply to place them down and say thank you. I begin with history: **“Arami oved avi…”** (Devarim 26:5).

Why go backward?

Because before I can appreciate what I have, I must remember what I did not have.

Hakaras hatov requires memory.

## “Arami Oved Avi” — The History Behind Hakaras HaTov

By bikkurim we say, **“Arami oved avi, vayeired Mitzraymah…”** (Devarim 26:5).

I used to understand this simply: in order to appreciate where I am now, I remember where I came from. I remember that there was difficulty, galus, and suffering—and now I have Eretz Yisrael and its fruits.

But I believe there is another depth here.

The entire history being recited is the formation of a Yid who can finally stand before Hashem and say, in effect: **I am not a kafui tov.**

Look at Lavan.

What was the tension between Yaakov and Lavan? Yaakov's final argument is filled with the fact that he served faithfully, honestly, day and night, while Lavan repeatedly changed the terms and failed to recognize what Yaakov had done for him (Bereishis 31:36–42).

Lavan represents a world without hakaras hatov.

Then Klal Yisrael descends to Mitzrayim. What is one of the defining descriptions of the new Pharaoh? **“Vayakam melech chadash al Mitzrayim asher lo yada es Yosef”**—a king arose who “did not know Yosef” (Shemos 1:8).

Mitzrayim could erase Yosef from its memory after everything Yosef had done for the country.

And where does that lead?

Pharaoh eventually says, **“Lo yadati es Hashem”**—“I do not know Hashem” (Shemos 5:2).

I believe the connection is profound. If you train yourself not to know Yosef, eventually you will say you do not know Hashem.

A lack of hakaras hatov toward man becomes a lack of hakaras hatov toward the Ribbono Shel Olam.

So when a Yid brings bikkurim and recounts this history, he is declaring who he is.

I come from a history that passed through Lavan and Mitzrayim, but I will not become them.

**I am a Yid. I recognize. I remember. I thank.**

## The Purpose of Creation Is Leheitiv — and to Be Makir the Hatavah

Now the pieces come together.

Rashi says **bishvil Yisrael shenikreu reishis**—the world was created for Yisrael, who are called *reishis* (Rashi to Bereishis 1:1). Bikkurim are *reishis*. The first fruits are brought precisely to express hakaras hatov.

Yisrael, *reishis*, bikkurim, and Bereishis itself are all meeting at the same point: **a Yid is meant to recognize the good of Hashem.**

The Ramchal explains that the purpose of creation is **leheitiv**—Hashem created in order to bestow good. But if the entire purpose is simply to give us good, why not create us directly in Olam Haba? Why create avodah, struggle, mitzvos, and an entire world in between?

The answer is that the good must be received in a way that can truly be appreciated. The Ramchal discusses the deficiency of receiving good as *nahama d'kisufa*—bread of shame—and the need for man to acquire his perfection through his own avodah (see *Derech Hashem* I:2).

This fits exactly with what we have been saying.

To receive the good properly, I must know that I received it. I must be able to appreciate it.

That is why Hashem built the recognition of *ki tov* into the very story of creation.

Human nature is strange. The more a person receives without reflection, the easier it becomes to take the giving for granted. Eventually, the gift itself can produce kefiyas hatov.

I heard a sharp story attributed to the Chasam Sofer. After doing someone a great favor, he supposedly gave the beneficiary an envelope containing small stones. When the man asked why, the Chasam Sofer explained: human nature is such that one day you may repay my good with bad. When that day comes and you feel like throwing stones at me, at least use these small ones.

The story is sharp because it exposes a frightening reality: **receiving does not automatically create gratitude.**

Hakaras hatov has to be learned.

## Why Was the Adamah Cursed?

After Adam's chet, Hashem says, **“Arurah ha'adamah ba'avurecha”**—the ground is cursed because of you (Bereishis 3:17).

Why curse the ground?

Chazal already point out that the adamah itself had failed earlier. Hashem had said, **“Eitz pri oseh pri”**—the tree itself should be fruit and should produce fruit. Rashi explains that the earth did not fully comply; the taste of the tree was not like the taste of the fruit (Rashi to Bereishis 1:11).

The esrog retained that quality: *taam eitzo u'piryo shaveh*.

But if the earth was already at fault, why was it not cursed immediately? Why wait until Adam sinned?

I had always understood simply that the earth exists for man. You do not punish the ground in a way that harms Adam while Adam himself still deserves the full benefit of creation. Once Adam sinned and the world had to change for him, the deficiency of the ground could also be addressed.

The Maharal gives this a deeper dimension. The very possibility of creation not completely carrying out the Divine command had to exist because man would later need the possibility of disobedience and bechirah. The earth's failure was bound into the structure that would eventually allow Adam's chet. I would want the exact Maharal location checked before publication.

But for our yesod, the point is even sharper.

What was Adam's failure? I believe that at its root it was a failure of **hakaras hatov**.

Hashem created a world in order to give good. Adam was placed in a world of *ki tov*. Yet instead of fully recognizing that goodness and living within Hashem's command, he reached outside it.

So the adamah itself is reduced.

You did not recognize the fullness of My good? Then the creation will no longer hand that fullness to you so easily.

## The Curse Forces Man to Recognize the Giver

Originally, the adamah was capable of giving with tremendous fullness.

Chazal say that in the future Eretz Yisrael will produce **gluskaos**—finished cakes—and even garments (Shabbos 30b). The idea is astonishing: the earth can give not merely raw material, but the completed benefit.

That is the ultimate *leheitiv*.

But if man receives everything in finished form and then becomes a kafui tov, the very abundance defeats its purpose.

So after the chet, Hashem scales the giving back.

Now bread comes through toil. Parnassah requires tefillah. Life forces me to confront the fact that I am not independent.

Chazal teach that certain keys remain directly in the hands of HaKadosh Baruch Hu—the key of rain, the key of childbirth, and the key of techiyas hameisim (Taanis 2a).

Why should rain and childbirth be such places of direct dependence?

I believe it is part of the same correction. Adam failed to recognize the good of Hashem. Now the most basic parts of human life repeatedly bring us back to the Giver.

I cannot simply say: I have it under control.

I have to daven.

And now the punishment of the nachash becomes understandable as well. Hashem says, **“Afar tochal kol yemei chayecha”**—dust you shall eat all the days of your life (Bereishis 3:14).

On the surface, what kind of curse is that? Dust is everywhere. The nachash never has to worry about food.

But the mefarshim explain the terrible depth: he does not have to ask Hashem for anything.

It is as though Hashem says: You do not want to recognize Me as the Giver? Then take your food and do not come to Me.

That is not a blessing. That is distance.

Man's need can itself be rachamim, because need brings him back into relationship with the One Who gives.

## The Avodah of Bereishis

I believe this is one of the most important lessons we can take for ourselves and teach our children:

**See the good. Recognize the good. Speak about the good.**

That is not a side lesson in Bereishis. That is Bereishis.

The Torah begins by teaching me, again and again, **“ki tov.”** Hashem wants man to live inside a world of goodness and to know that it is goodness from Him.

Adam was created to become a **makir tov**.

When he recognizes the good, he is living in harmony with the purpose of the briah. When he becomes a kafui tov, he is fighting the very design of creation.

The complete Adam—the *Adam hashaleim*—is the person who sees what Hashem has given him, understands that he received it, and responds with hodaah, responsibility, and avodas Hashem.

That is the yesod I believe Parashas Bereishis is teaching us:

The world was created **ki tov**.

And man was created to recognize it.