In this week's parsha we read about the first seven of the ten plagues which G-d brought upon the Egyptians. Although many of the plagues we carried out through Moshe's initiation, certain plagues the Midrash tells us that Moshe wasn't supposed to initiate. One of these plagues was the first plague of blood, which turned the Nile River into blood as well as all of the other waters of Egypt into blood. His parents placed him in an ark and floated him down the river as a small child to prevent him from being murdered by the Egyptians. The midrash tells us that Moshe was told not to initiate the plague because it was the waters of Egypt that saved him from death.

If Moshe was obligated to treat the water with a certain level of appreciation in return for the good the water did for him, then how much more so is a person obligated to show their appreciation to another human being who does them a favor or has helped them in life. Many times we move on in life and circumstances change but we can't forget the good people have done for us in the past and we must always have a certain level of appreciation for those people.

Shabbat Shalom,

Heath