When you give, it’s really nothing to do with the thing itself. The thing itself is just the box. The container. What’s inside the box is you. You give yourself. The gift is the giving. Receiving is about what you get. Giving is always about giving yourself.
The Torah commands us not to cause unnecessary suffering to animals, Not just for the sake of the animal, but because cruelty damages the human soul. Parshas Mishpatim is about caring when no one is looking. The Torah demands kindness precisely where there is no gratitude, no recognition. Animals won’t thank you.
As children marry, family dynamics change; they build their own homes, and they create new and separate lives. It’s a different dynamic. Family get-togethers, Shabbos and Festivals become more like the ingathering of the clan rather than those intimate Shabboses of the nuclear family. But sometimes Hashem gives us a “gift” that brings us back to that original closeness.