“Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.” — Numbers 20:8

The Torah portion for this week is Chukat, which means “law” or “requirement,” from Numbers 19:1–22:1, and the Haftorah is from Judges 11:1–33.

This week’s Torah reading contains Moses’ big blunder. After Miriam’s death, the rock that had provided water to the Israelites for 40 years had dried up. The people complained to Moses about their thirst, and so Moses prayed to God. God commanded Moses to speak to the rock so that the waters would flow once more. However, instead of speaking to the rock as God had instructed, Moses struck the rock with his staff. Consequently, he was forbidden from entering the Promised Land.

The Sages are full of commentary on these verses. Why did Moses hit the rock instead of speaking to it as God had commanded? And what was so bad about hitting the rock anyway?

One commentator explains that Moses did speak to the rock at first as God had commanded. The problem was that he spoke to the wrong rock. God had told Moses to speak to the very same rock that had been supplying water all along, but Moses failed to distinguish it from the other rocks. When speaking to the rock didn’t work, and Moses realized that he had the wrong rock, he did the only thing that he could think of, which was to hit the new rock to make it into a source of water as he had done years earlier.

According to this explanation, Moses’ mistake was not that he hit the rock, it’s that he didn’t recognize the right rock. Why is that significant? The Sages teach that we have an obligation to recognize the good in our lives. We have to be grateful for the people and blessings in our lives. Moses’ inability to find the rock that had blessed the people for so many years displayed a lack of gratitude — and that was the root of his blunder.

I often think of this quote: “What if you had today only what you thanked God for yesterday?” It is so important for us to thank God for what we have every single day! In Hebrew, the term for gratitude is hakarat hatov. Literally, the words mean “‘recognizing the good.” Gratitude isn’t only for the easy times in life when everything feels wonderful. Gratitude is about recognizing the good in our lives when there is plenty of bad.

Today, try having a day of gratitude. Thank God for all of the good that is present in your life right now, no matter what your circumstances. When we live with gratitude, we won’t have to “hit the rock” or work so hard for our needs. We’ll be able to “speak to the rock” by asking God for our needs, and His waters of abundance will flow our way.