Yesterday, we discussed two reasons why people don't have gratitude, both of which are hardwired into our psyche. One of them is that Everything that we have is expected, because we grew up that way. We have it, we always had it. It's not a question. As the saying goes, yesterday's luxuries are today's necessities . So, of course it's expected. Furthermore, My ego says that the world was created for me . There's another reason, which Rav Wolbe says is that When I receive something from somebody and I recognize the good, I become Mechuyav/ beholden. I owe him;. I'm subjugated to him. I have to say thank you. It's hard to say thank you. There's a humility involved. Our Gaavah / arrogance , gets involved. He gave me, I owe him. That sense of obligation, that humility, is difficult. Even little children shy away from saying thank you.They’d rather just grab the candy and run. That uncomfortable feeling of being meshubad stops our Hakarat HaTov. That's why the term, in Hebrew, for ingrate is kefiat tova or kafoy tova, which literally means to cover up the good. Like when you take a jar or a bowl and cover something up. Or it's called Kofer BTova/To deny the goodness . As we've said in the past, Rav Hutner says the word Modeh , which means thank you, comes from the same root as Hoda’ah , which means admission . When someone says,”You owe me money ,” you say, “ I'm modeh/I admit.” It's the same word because, he says, every time you say thank you there is a certain admission occurring, where you’re admitting that, “ I'm beholden to you .” That's an uncomfortable feeling, so we’d rather deny it. My mind wants to deny it because I don't want to be beholden to you. That's why, quite often, when people do a lot of favors for someone, the recipient of the favors starts to fault in the giver. It comes from this inability to be beholden to somebody else. Of course, this is even more so when it comes to God. It’s also part of the night of the Seder, to realize this lacking, and to become meshubad/subservient to Hashem. That's why we were in Mitzrayim ; because we were meshubad to Paroah. We were slaves, and we're just replacing one subjugation with another. But we have to be comfortable with this concept, that Yes , I receive, I owe God. And really, deep down, for atheists, it's not a problem with their intellect. They might be very intellectual people. The problem with the atheist is that he doesn't want to say Thank You to God, and therefore, he denies God's existence. Forget about denying the good. He's smarter than that. I'm not going to deny the good- the world is a wonderful place. Let me deny the Benefactor. He doesn't exist. So they have the Big Bang. That's genius. Genius Kefoy Tova, as in Kofer B’Tova. That's what we call them. Kofrim . They're deniers . They're denying God. But really, they're just denying because they don't want to feel beholden. The high point of the Seder is discussing the four pesukim that they used to say when they brought the Bikurim/ first fruits , to the Kohen. We say, Arami Oved Avi, referring to Lavan, who wanted to destroy Yaakov Avinu, and so on. Bikurim is all about is Hakarat Hatov/gratitude . We bring the basket of fruit and we thank Hashem. And it says that we should say it out loud, because it’s not sufficient to just mumble a thank you with marbles in your mouth. It has to be a loud and clear Thank You. And it's interesting that the Or Someach and other rabbis tell us that the source that you read Bikurim is because there's VaAnita/ say it out loud and the Matzah is called the Lechem Oni, which some say is not only bread of poverty , but Oni , coming from the root Oneh/to say. We say things out loud. The whole Haggadah is one lesson in saying out loud, “I owe God. I am beholden. ” That's Lechem Oni. That’s Bikurim . And at the end of all that, it says, VeSamacha/Be happy . If you made the money but you're not as good as everybody else, you're going to be sad. But if you have your Emunah glasses on and realize that Hashem gave you this, and this is what you need, V’Samachta B’kol HaTov- at the end of the season, you have to be happy with all the goodness that you got from Hashem. These are the important lessons that God teaches us,of Hakarat HaTov, that we will be stressing throughout the Seder night, and in our preparations for the Seder.