Imagine that the year is 1621, the year of the first Thanksgiving. Imagine yourself as one of those pilgrims who set sail for America. You are warned of the dangers that lie ahead, and the potential rough waters.
And you accidentally end up in Massachusetts instead of the intended destination in Virginia. Arriving in winter it was cold with limited food and limited shelter. Within a short time half of the pilgrims died. Those remaining looked forward to spring and planting wheat and corn. But their attempts to replenish their supplies were unsuccessful.
It is certainly enough to make a person wonder what Thanksgiving was all about and what those first pilgrims had for which to be grateful. For many people even today, gratitude is not an emotion that comes naturally. And so Thanksgiving becomes more about turkey and football and less about saying thank you.
The original Thanksgiving has a long history to it. In Judaism, it started several thousand years ago when the Israelites celebrated a festival of ingathering, quite similar to our modern day Thanksgiving holiday.
The Book of Leviticus says that “when you have gathered in the fruit of the land in the fall, you shall have a feast unto the Lord and you shall rejoice and be happy for seven days.” This is the festival of Sukkot, the festival of Tabernacles which the Jewish people continue to celebrate in the fall.
The Book of Genesis tells a story of Jacob who leaves Beer Sheba and sets out for Haran, where he comes upon a certain place and stops there for the night. The sun had set, and taking one of the stones nearby, he places it under his head and lies down and dreams a dream of a stairway that was set on the ground whose top reached to the sky.
Angels of God were going up and down the stairway. God was standing beside Jacob and said to him that He would protect him wherever he would go. And when Jacob awakened from his sleep he said: “Surely God is in this place, and I did not know it. Shaken, he said: “How awesome is this place. This is none other than the abode of God, and that is the gateway to heaven.”
How often do you find yourselves in the presence of God, not only in a formal place of worship such as a Temple or church, but at crucial moments in your lives or in the midst of natural beauty, and remain unaware of it.
Jacob’s plight illustrates the importance of taking notice and paying attention. Too often we ask: Where is God? Seldom do we take the time and energy to look for God. But seeing God by itself is not our only challenge. The challenge is seeing God with our soul’s eye, the eye of ethical righteousness that reminds us to follow in God’s ways.
Seeing God is feeling grateful. It is appreciating the blessings that are found in every waking moment of life. There is so much to be thankful for, if only we would take more time to notice. I hope that we will all spend more time in life looking for opportunities to say: “How awesome is this place. This is none other than the abode of God.”
And what better time than today, tomorrow, or each day of the week leading up to the next Thanksgiving to remind ourselves of the words of Psalm 136: “Give thanks to God, for God’s love endures forever.”
Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving, and hope that you will give generously to all whose bounty is not as great as yours.
The author is Interim Rabbi of Beth Judah Temple, Wildwood.
North Cape May – Another shout out to Officer Bohn, the school resource officer at LCMR. I admire his hard work and devotion to the students and staff as I see him every morning and afternoon, snow, wind , sleet or…
