“You shall be men of holiness to me. You must not eat flesh torn in the field, but you should throw it to the dog.” (Shemos 22:30)

The question is asked: why does the verse in the Torah mention that we should give “traif” meat to the dog? We can also give it to a non-Jew, so why does the verse only mention to give it to a dog?

The most popular answer to this question is because the dogs did not bark when we left Egypt. Since they did not bark, we have hakaras hatov – thankfulness – to them. We reward them with giving them our traif meat.

There is another reason that I once heard from Rav Zev Leff. The dog that is being spoken about in the verse is a dog that protects sheep from wolves. The dog makes sure that the wolves do not get by it and kill the sheep. But then one time, the wolf was able to successfully get by the dog and kill a sheep. That sheep is now traif meat – what should be done with it? The verse states to throw it to the dog. A person might wonder, “Why? The dog did not do its job? The only reason there is traif is because the wolf got by the dog; why should I give the traif meat to the dog?”

The answer is because we need to show hakaras hatov to the dog. The dog stopped the wolf hundreds of times before the wolf was finally successful. We are sending a message of thanks to the dog – even though the wolf won this time, you did an excellent job.

It is like a Wide Receiver on a football team making amazing catches during the entire season. Then, unfortunately, with less than three minutes left in the Super Bowl, this Wide Receiver dropped a pass that was in his hands. Don’t yell and scream at him. Be thankful to him for doing amazing during the season and helping the team get to the Super Bowl.

Last week, I heard Rav Leiff say an interesting though regarding Hakaras Hatov. Seven days after the Jews left Egypt, they were surrounded on all sides. In front of them was a river. Behind them was the Egyptians. We know that an amazing miracle happened – the splitting of the Sea, but the Ibn Ezra asks why didn’t the Jews fight the Egyptians. They had just witnessed ten months of miracles. According to the Ibn Ezra, only 600 Egyptians were chasing the Jews. There were three million Jews – they could have easily embarrassed them. We also know that the Jews were strong, because a few weeks later, they fought the mighty Amalek and won the war.

The reason the Jews didn’t fight was because they had Hakaras Hatov. Although the Egyptians tortured them, the Egyptians also fed and housed the Jews for 210 years. The Jews did not want to fight the Egyptians because they were thankful for what the Egyptians did for them.

Being thankful is a great trait!

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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