And He said to Avram, “Know definitely that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land. They will be enslaved and oppressed there for 400 years.” (Bereshis 15:13)

Why did the Egyptians deserve to get punished so harshly for enslaving the Jews? Avram received a prophecy in this week’s parsha that his offspring would be enslaved and oppressed. The Egyptians were merely fulfilling this prophecy, so what wrong did they do?

The answer is: who told the Egyptians that they were the ones who should oppress the Jews? The prophecy never stated the Egyptians should be the ones to make the Jews suffer; it just states that it will happen. Since the Egyptians “chose” to do this, they deserved punishment. Just because Hashem decrees that someone needs to suffer, does not mean a certain person needs to perform that act.

I recently learned an amazing insight from my Rav. We were learning about Hakaras HaTov (being grateful to other people) and my Rav stated that we do not express thankfulness for the act a person does. If Hashem wanted the act to occur, it would have been done if this person did it or not. The Hakaras HaTov is to the person for making a good choice to be the one who did that act.

For example, let’s say someone gives a yeshiva a million dollars. That is certainly a great act and the person will be rewarded for doing this. But he does not deserve any “thank yous” because he gave the large sum of money to the yeshiva because Hashem had already decreed the yeshiva would get a million dollar donation. The reason he is honored is because this person “chose” to make this good choice. Even though Hashem already decreed the yeshiva would get the money, this individual chose to perform the act of amazing kindness and he deserves our Hakaras HaTov for this decision he made.

This past week I involved in a conversation with one the Rebbes at Rohr Middle School (which my son started attending this year). Last year, they started a new Leadership Program where they teach the students to use 7 Habits to become great people. The Rebbe told me there would be a few changes for this year with this Program. One of the main changes is what the program will be focusing on; although last year this concept was implied, this year they want to stress that to be a great leader is to make great choices.

The choices one makes is what makes him great so choose wisely.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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