November 26, 2014
I had a professor once who thought that Jews didn’t cultivate an attitude of gratitude. Many in the class argued with him vehemently. I am not sure we ever convinced him. I had a congregant argue with me that according to Orthodox Jews, Thanksgiving isn’t a Jewish holiday so they don’t celebrate it in the Orthodox world. The Reform Movement this week sent out an email about how to make Thanksgiving more Jewish. If you are looking for ideas for your own Thanksgiving table it is a good article. http://www.reformjudaism.org/blog/2014/11/21/thanksgiving-jewish-holiday?utm_source=WU&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20141121&utm_campaign=Feature

But it doesn’t go far enough. She is correct. The original Puritans took their religion seriously (too seriously if you ask me and I worked as a Pilgrim at Plimouth Plantation where we were not allowed to joke or laugh or talk about Christmas. Christmas and birthdays were just other days, not something to celebrate). But they did take thanking G-d seriously. And they saw their role in cold, snowy New England, as a utopian society. They were a light to the nations. A light on the hill. Their celebration of Thanksgiving was based on the Jewish festival of Sukkot. The harvest festival. Governor Bradford learned to read Hebrew: “Though I am grown aged, yet I have had a longing desire to see with my own eyes something of that most ancient language and holy tongue, in which the Law and the oracles of God were written and in which God and angels spoke to the holy patriarchs of old time . . . My aim and desire is to see holy text, and to discern somewhat of the same, for my own content” (p. xxviii, edited by Samuel Eliot Morison, 1989).

This month my congregation has been focusing on prayer. It was very enriching. The conversations were wonderful. One older congregant explained that it is really very simple. He prayed, “To thank G-d. To praise G-d. That is all. That is why we are here.”

Another challenged me to think about the difference between grateful and thankful. Until last week I had always thought they were synonyms. Her feeling is that grateful is an internal sense and thankful is what we feel when someone is nice to us. A check of the web leads to many answers. One said that we use grateful when we talk about how we feel when someone is kind to us. “Thank you so much for helping us move. We are so grateful” “I would be grateful if you sent me information.” Thankful is used when we are relieved. “I am thankful to survive the accident.” I am not sure this settles it for me. I love this kind of word play and am delighted to have thought it out.

In any case, the rabbis of the Talmud teach we should say 100 blessings (at least) a day. It sounds difficult. The reality is that in the Birkat Hashachar, the introductory portion of the service, there are at least 50. We spent Saturday morning counting them.

So what I am thankful for?

I am thankful for G-d. For life. For family. For friends. For food. For shelter. For heat. For clothing. For health. For meaningful employment. For the ability to make a difference in the world.

These are good questions. How do you see grateful and thankful? What are you thankful for? Happy Thanksgiving.