A Thanksgiving Prayer

All of South Jersey has had a big awakening as we ended the month of October with Sandy hitting our shores and devastating many in our community. Some of us were lucky not to experience the full force of Mother Nature but others were not so lucky and as many begin the long process of rebuilding we often ask what we can be thankful for after such tragedy hits our community.
The month of October has left us and as we put away our lulav and etrog and begin the long month of Cheshvan, the sad holidayless month, we look to the secular ideas of bounty as we approach the American holiday of Thanksgiving. It seems strange to be thinking of bounty after such destruction that has hit our community, but bounty is more than a material wealth, it can be something much higher in spirit. I believe we have much bounty in our community and I offer a thought to ponder as we approach our day of thanks.
Thanksgiving is a unique day within the religious consciousness of both Jews and Christians. We each recognize not only the unique quality that is America but the importance to show our gratefulness for the freedom and opportunities that America has given us. For many it is a day of turkey and football but for some of us it is a day to contemplate what it means to have faith in a time of prosperity.
Our American ancestors arrived at these shores during the last century of the rural era. They immediately set out to recreate a rural community, similar to the rural communities familiar to them in Western Europe. With handmade tools, they plowed the good, rich earth and seeded the soil. With care, they tended their few animals hoping that the small herds and flocks would multiply and provide them with increased bounty through the years. Life was simple, and their needs were few.
This is the heritage of all Americans that we contemplate on Thanksgiving, especially for us Jews in Wildwood as we think of our Woodbine heritage, the first Jewish farming city in the United States and our struggle to grow and thrive and build this country.
Times have changed since those first days in Cape May County, as has the dream to establish an ideal Jewish farming community, but the struggle to find our Jewish place in this blessed land has remained, even as the last Jewish farmer left Woodbine.
The Jewish Thanksgiving is really the holiday of Sukkot in which we embrace the harvest and bounty of fruits in ancient Israel but American Thanksgiving is important because we get the chance to say thank you for having a country that has been so special to us and embraced tolerance and joy in our faith.
This year is a tough year for some of us as we sit at our tables and contemplate the year before us and those we have lost. I think much of my Dad during this time and my brother David who loved Thanksgiving so much. This is the time for family and it is also a time when we recognize the family that is missing at our table.
We have lost some this year in our community and it is important that we take this time on this holiday season to cherish every moment we have together and make it special. Thanksgiving is a day of family, friends, and good fortune and one that needs to be embraced by people of faith and blessed in our own Jewish way.
Looking back on the tragedy of the storm these last weeks, it’s those we love that are our true gift of bounty this time of year and now is the time to embrace that bounty together and say thanks.
We hear the call of Isaiah to stand strong with the ideals of our Torah, to not forget the widow or the orphan in times of plenty. We also see a plea from our prophets to not let wealth blind us from our goal of improving the world or turn our back on those that are suffering.
Thanksgiving is that time to celebrate the joy in our lives but also vow to build greater joy in a growing home. This unique holiday offers the opportunity to welcome the stranger as a new member of our family and to offer forgiveness to deeds and hurts long since past.
We need to take this special time of bounty and embrace the beauty of God and make peace in the home. It is important to ask ourselves where God is in all of this. Just that simple question allows us to use the power this day of thanks has to make it holy with the act of forgiveness. Second, any self-reflection leads to some insights. The insight might be that we need someone to talk to or to connect with those who are new in our presence. It might give us some other answer, or lead us to a deeper question to contemplate.
Third, we can use the day of thanks as a ritual to frame our experience how special and lucky we are. It might be important to visit those we have hard feelings with and make peace and break bread with them. And finally, we can extend ourselves in some way that is of help to another.
Even a pleasant “hello” to an employee or coworker is an important mitzvah because it acknowledges the most fundamental Jewish value that we are created uniquely in God’s image and therefore treats one another with the same respect with which we would treat God. That is the true bounty of this holiday.
Happy Thanksgiving
Rabbi Jeffrey Lipschultz is the spiritual leader of Beth Judah Temple in Wildwood. He welcomes your comments at dvjewish@rof.net