“…I will provoke them to anger with a vile nation.” (Devarim 32:21)

As we stand after Yom Kippur, we would like to believe that we have a clean slate. We have hopefully gone through the teshuva process and are now waiting to show our enthusiasm in serving Hashem meticulously on the holiday of Sukkos. I would like to share a thought that combines the concept of Sukkos with that of post-Yom Kippur. On the holiday of Sukkos, we celebrate our bountiful produce that has been harvested, and we take joy and thank Hashem for His graciousness. This is not just a perfunctory act, but we must indeed appreciate the blessings that have been bestowed upon us.

When looking around the world today, we see the poverty of the nations the world over. I am willing to say that most of us in our kehilla live far above the median level. We have indoor plumbing, electricity, and even air conditioning. There are hundreds of millions of people who still have never even seen such things. As we say thank you for these things, it should cross our minds: Do we deserve these blessings?

We mentioned that we have done teshuva and are ready to move onward. Did we really repent properly? Were all the conditions set forth by the Rambam fulfilled? If you answered, “more-or-less”, were you “more” or “less”? Many of us may come to the conclusion that we were “less”. Yet, we feel confident that since Hashem loves us, He has granted us a pardon. I believe that both for our produce and for our teshuva, the main gratitude needs to not be for what we get which we feel we deserve, but rather it is for the things we get which we really don’t deserve.

This concept is alluded to in this week’s parsha. Rashi says that our verse is referring to the heretics. And similarly, it says “…the vile one said in his heart ‘there is no G-d’” (Tehilim 14:1).

I saw the question asked that as there are many heretics who seem to be kind and nice people, so why would the word “vile” apply to them? The answer which I saw was as follows: We teach our children from the youngest age, to say “Thank you.” We do this in order to teach them not to take things for granted and to appreciate that which is given to them. Avraham Avinu taught us that if we stop and take an honest look around, we would come to the conclusion that G-d totally sustains us. This is why he made all of his guests thank Hashem after they ate. A person who is missing such a basic human attribute of recognizing the good that he is getting, undoubtedly will be a vile person. It may not present itself out on a daily basis, but without this fundamental appreciation he will have no restraints.

We should be leaving Yom Kippur with a genuine appreciation that Hashem has forgiven us, even though we may not have earned it. This should segue into celebrating Sukkos, with the appreciation that Hashem showers us with brochos in our daily lives, which we also haven’t earned. Now we can all understand why a person who doesn’t believe in Hashem is inherently a vile person.

At this time, I would also like to be makir tov to the kehilla for making our davening moving for me and each and every congregant. It is not a given and we should all appreciate it!