Answer

See here an article that explains these things in more detail. There I bring an even more explicit verse: “Do you thus repay the Lord, O foolish and unwise people?” I explain there that this is a different kind of gratitude.

Moses’ prophecy is not the reason for observing the commandments. The reason is my decision to be committed, and the understanding that this is right. Moses’ prophecy defines the commandments; that is, the commandments are those that were prophesied through Moses. Moreover, as Maimonides writes at the end of chapter 8 of Laws of Kings, I am supposed to be committed to the commandments that were given through Moses. If I observe them because they seem logical to me, that has no religious value, but at most human value.

Usually it is impossible to explain why something is a value and why it stands at the top of the hierarchy of values (this is the phenomenon called the incommensurability of values. See the latest column, no. 28, on my site). God is at the top of the pyramid of values because without God there is no such thing as values. See on my site the fourth booklet.
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Yitzhak Sh.:
After I read the article on “philosophical gratitude”—
is this still a moral intuition, or is it some entirely different kind of intuition? Is there a dichotomy between the moral and the religious, or is a religious act בעצם moral (the norms are determined differently, but the commitment to those norms has a moral basis)…
Even after all the “distinctions,” it still seems to me that this is a quantitative difference, not a qualitative one… not just repaying someone who did me good, but “copyright” belonging to the one who created me… Is it like that same intuition we have regarding the law of copyright, or is that only an analogy to make it easier to understand, while the intuition regarding obligation to the Creator is something with no real parallel?
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Rabbi:
Hello Yitzhak.
You are moving, without noticing, from one question to another.
The first is whether this gratitude is a moral obligation or not. I myself wondered about that in the article. It seems to me that this is more of a legal obligation than a moral one. But why is that important? My claim is that there is such an obligation.
The second question concerns the relationship between the moral and the religious (see column 15 on this). Here you assume that this gratitude is a religious obligation, but in my opinion that is not precise, and I did not make that claim in the article. As I said, I tend to think this is a legal obligation, except that in the religious world people also apply it toward the Holy One, blessed be He. What I mean is that religiosity (= Jewish law) does not create this obligation. Religiosity (= faith) only contributes the factual premise that He created us and demands of us, and therefore this legal obligation applies toward Him as well (like toward a parent or creator).