As America gears up to celebrate Thanksgving this week, Jewish people will be reading in Parshat Vayetzei about how Leah named her fouth son Yehudah because "HaPaam Odeh Et Hashem," "This time I will praise Hashem."
The Gemara (Berachos 7b) relates that from the day Hashem created the world, no one thanked Him until Leah thanked Him for the birth of her fourth son Yehudah. At first glance, this Gemara defies understanding. Didn’t Adam, Noach, Avraham, Yitzchak, Yaakov, Sarah, Rivkah, and Rachel have countless reasons and opportunities to thank Hashem? And why didn’t Leah herself thank Hashem for her first three children?
...From the time the world was created, no one ever felt that the bounty given to them by Hashem was totally undeserved. Even the greatest people thought that what was given to them was part of God’s plan for the world, and therefore not completely undeserved. But God’s plan could have been equally fulfilled if the fourth son born to Leah had been born to any of her sisters. Thus Leah felt his birth was totally unearned, and required the full measure of gratitude.
To read full article, click on the link below.
http://www.shemayisrael.com/parsha/leff/archives/tzav.htm
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