Shaarei Shamayim

For many, this week’s Thanksgiving celebration will be more difficult than most. It’s easy to give thanks for our blessings when things are going well, when our storage grains are full—so to speak. But when our incomes and retirement accounts have taken a hit in a bad economy, when some of us have lost their jobs or have been forced to work for much less…what do we have to be grateful for? The answer, of course, is: Plenty!

The obvious answer is that we still have the things that really matter: family, friends, hopefully good health, freedom, our shule. In reality each of our lists is much much longer, but we still need to be reminded of that—especially as Thanksgiving approaches.

Let me share with you a thought from Rabbi Hillel Silverman who asks us to be grateful for something that probably never occurred to us. Some years ago, Rabbi Silverman dialogued with one of the great philosophers of his town—his barber—who asked him: “I read in the Greenwich Times that you will be addressing 3 masses at St. Catherine’s next Sunday morning.”
            “Yes, that’s right,” Rabbi Silverman replied. “What a wonderful community this is! Imagine, a Rabbi, representing a small minority, invited to deliver the homily at a leading Catholic church.”
            “Never mind the platitudes,” his philosopher -barber-friend replied. “What will you talk about?”
            “It’s a pre-Thanksgiving address. I’ll talk about all of Gd’s blessings for which we must be grateful constantly—life, health, family, friends, community, religion, country.”
            His barber then says, “Everybody knows this; it’s nothing new. We expect to hear this in church on Thanksgiving.”
            “What do you suggest?” he asked him.
            “Tell the people to be thankful for what they don’t have.”

Rabbi Silverman comments: There is much validity in his barber’s observations. We all have our share of problems; life is never completely smooth. Ill health, reversals, family dilemmas …we all carry our burdens. But would we trade our tensions and anxieties with those of others? At least we know what troubles us; our neighbor’s lot may be even worse. We somehow manage to muddle through and cope as best we can. Could we really handle someone else’s misfortunes?

There’s an old Yiddish proverb that if everyone would put their troubles in a jar and place it on a shelf and you could pick the troubles you would face in life…you would pick your own! Better our own problems than someone else’s. There’s so much misery and unhappiness in our world—poverty, hunger, sickness, depression, disabilities, broken homes, loneliness. Thank Gd for what we don’t have!

Helen Keller who was blind and deaf wrote: I have often thought that it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind or deaf for a few days at some time during his or her early adult life. Darkness would make him or her appreciative of sight—silence would teach him the joys of sound. Thank Gd for what we don’t have!

Let’s take a closer look at what the Pilgrims had to be thankful for as they celebrated their 1st Thanksgiving. Of the 102 passengers who landed at Plymouth Rock, 51 died within the 1st 6 months. Not a single family had been spared by death. They were starving in a hostile world. They stood alone against the forces of nature in a strange land and yet these were the people who gathered to give thanks to Almighty Gd for His blessings and to express their humble dependence upon His mercies for their continuing life. What did they have to give thanks for? They survived and they had they each other and they thanked Gd for watching over them. They thanked Gd for what they didn’t have—more illness, starvation and death.

And to bring the point home, the poet Marcel Jose Alexander writes: There was a time when faith began to slip—when I had lost all I had to lose, or so it seemed to me. I lost my job, my house—I had no home, no food, and no shoes.
            And suddenly, I felt myself ashamed, for I who talked of shoes then chanced to meet upon the busy highway of my life—a man who had no feet.
            If only we could learn to magnify our blessings instead of exaggerating our troubles, how large they loom.
We need to thank Gd for what we don’t have!

For me, the American Thanksgiving holiday has always had a special place in my heart. Yes, I love the food: the turkey with its stuffing and cranberry sauce and, for desert, pumpkin pie. Yes, I love getting together with family and friends watching the parade, eating dinner and—of course—the football games—especially when the Dallas Cowboys loose!

But as I reflect, there is something much deeper about Thanksgiving that tugs at my soul. There is a special—and I would even call it holy—atmosphere that descends upon all of America on the last Thursday in November. I believe that America is a most special nation, a holy nation that is a model of goodness for the world. We don’t always live up to that, but this mission is part of who we are. And as Dennis Prager writes: “It says an immense amount about America and its value system that it long ago began, and later officially enshrined, a national holiday just for the purpose of giving thanks.”

And, as a Jew, I’m so grateful to America because from colonial days onward, it welcomed Jews when no other country in the world would. And not only did it welcome us, it gave us freedom and opportunity—things we had not seen for 2,000 years.

And one other thing: As Dennis Prager points out, Thanksgiving is the one day of the year in which we Jews celebrate the same religious holiday [it certainly is a religious holiday] with the rest of America. By definition, Jews do not share a religion with the non-Jewish majority of Americans. But we do share our Gd with the Christian majority. And this holiday alone affirms that.

Today’s parsha is mostly about blessings—the blessings Isaac gives to his children Jacob and Esav. To a great extent, these blessings helped define who they were. Gd has showered us with so many blessings and, like the Pilgrims of old, we must be able to see that—even in difficult times. And so this Thursday, let us—as Jews—give thanks to Gd Almighty for our great nation and the values of freedom and opportunity it stands for. And let us give thanks in our personal lives for the things we don’t have. Amen!

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