Dear
Readers,
These columns began on my area of America Online, called: Judaism
Today: Where Do I Fit? People anonymously
sent me E-Mail, and I began to choose one for a public response
in my Jewish E-Mail of the Week column. The column has become
quite popular and is now syndicated internationally in many
Jewish papers and websites. I hope you find they help you
as you think about the Ethics, Spirituality and Peoplehood
components of the Jewish way of Life. I welcome your
comments... see the end of the column.
Gil
PS
Teachers and others, feel free to copy my columns and forward
them or use them as you see fit. Please see the friendly
copyright notice at the end. |
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Were
the Pilgrims Jewish?
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As
a change of pace, this week, I thought
I would write a response of the week
about Thanksgiving--even though nobody
has sent me or posted anything on the
subject...after reading this, I hope
you will!
We
usually think of Thanksgiving as a
secular American holiday based on the
story of the Pilgrams. But if you take
another look, you can find some Jewish
ways to see, enhance and enjoy this
wonderful holiday.
We
all learned the story about the
Pilgrams in school. These were
Christian people who fled to the new
world to establish a new life for
themselves. Things were difficult for
them in this country and they suffered
greatly. But they did take a timeout
from their struggling lives to have a
feast--with turkey--and say thank you
to God. The rest is history. And now
we get Thursday and Friday off every
year, the postal service stops
delivery and we pig out...let me make
that kosher: we eat a big meal. :)!
What
does this have to do with Judaism? On
the surface, not much.
But
if you look just a little beneath the
surface and use a small amount of
imagination, it is easy to find Jewish
connections. Were the Pilgrims Jewish?
Of course not, but they were religious
people who were very aware of the
Jewish Bible.
Consider
this: most of our holidays as
described in our Bible and in other
texts are really thanksgiving
holidays: Passover, Succoth, Shavout,
Hanukkah, Purim and so on. The Jewish
Calendar is full of these Holidays.
Holidays are structured ways to
reinforce values. I would say that one
of the Jewish values being reinforced
by these holidays is to remind us to
be thankful all year---thankful, as
the Pilgrams were on that first
Thanksgiving for freedom, harvests,
and just being alive.
Now
going beyond that, our tradition tells
us to be constantly thankful--on a
daily and hourly basis. That is one of
the reasons, we Jews have a blessing
for everything. Many blessings are
really prayers of thanksgiving and we
have a blessing for almost anything
you can imagine: eating, getting up in
the morning, seeing something
beautiful in nature, encountering a
smart person, even going to the
bathroom.
(Straying
from the subject for a second...I have
always loved the example of how we
have a blessing for everything in the
play Fiddler on the Roof when the
village of Anatevka's rabbi is asked
if there is even a blessing for the
wicked and anti-Semitic Czar. The
rabbi replies: "May the Lord
bless and keep the Czar....far from
Anatevka!"...not exactly a prayer
of thanksgiving, but funny
nonetheless.)
Jokes
aside, I believe even a person who
does not believe in God, can find
value in blessings of thanks. I say
this because I think even an athiest
can appreciate the good fortune of
"having"--that is one of the
reasons behind blessings. Our rabbis
take this thought further in the
Talmud (the great collection of Jewish
law) where they write that to eat food
without saying a blessing is the same
as stealing.
Conversely,
another reason to give blessings of
thanks is to remind us (including
atheists) that we should be sensitive
to those who do not have. Along these
lines, is the beautiful tradition that
we Jews include as a part of our
spring time thanksgiving holiday:
Passover..to invite all who are hungry
to join us at our table and eat. That
would be a nice tradition to add to
our American celebration of
Thanksgiving.
I
will end with this delicious morsel:
The Hebrew word for Jew is Yehudi...which
comes from the name Yehudah (that's
Judah in English.) That sounds like
the word "Todah" which as
many people know, means thank you.
Yehudah means thank you God. The word
"Judaism" also comes from
the name Yehudah or Judah. We Jews are
named after the idea of being
thankful. In other words, to be
thankful is at the essense of being a
Jew. To be Jewish is to try to be
thankful not only on Thanksgiving day
but always.
Some
Jewish ideas I offer you to think
about as you sit around your
thanksgiving table commemorating the
Pilgrims. I hope you like them!
HAPPY
THANKSGIVING!
A FRIENDLY COPYRIGHT NOTICE
© Copyright Gil Mann
These columns can be found at www.beingjewish.org. Not
only do I give you permissions to copy these Jewish Email
columns...I HOPE YOU WILL and that you share them with others!
All I ask is that you never charge anyone for them and that you
also include this little copyright notice. Thank You!
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