Welcome to this new series about gratitude to G-d and how we can (or must?) express it.
We will begin our journey with Torah, then Talmudic sources, and later commentaries. In this session we will begin as an introduction with a familiar text from the siddur and a story to elucidate it. Then we will examine what seem to be the first human expressions of gratitude, which are documented in the Torah and in sources from the Talmudic period.
In each case we will ask: Was this truly an expression of gratitude? Was it obligatory? Did G-d indicate that it would be a good idea, or did the idea come from the side of the humans involved?
For those interested I am posting here a couple of Talmudic-period sources, which we will examine together in the class.
***NOTE: Due to my error, no recording was made of this session. My apologies to all. — YZ