November
24, 2016 / 23 Cheshvan 5777
Thanksgiving
– Giving Thanks
Dear Friends,
The Pilgrims knew their
Hebrew Bible. They knew of the Jewish
harvest celebration called Sukkot. Many
believe that the first Thanksgiving was modeled on the Sukkot festival. Yet, what makes Thanksgiving special is the
blending of Judeo-Christian and Native American customs to form a new tradition
here in the Americas. The bringing
together of different peoples to join in a shared celebration is unique to
America. It could only happen here at
that time, not in Europe. We
Reconstructionists revel in our pursuit of pluralism within the Jewish world. We celebrate the reaching between religious
communities to create bridges of understanding and coexistence.
This year, as you sit down
to your Thanksgiving dinners, I encourage you to take a few moments to offer
prayers of thanksgiving for the abundance we share here in America. Take a few moments to share readings and
teachings of gratitude that come from the various religious traditions of those
who may be sitting around your table.
Read the two pieces below, which come from the Hebrew Bible and Native
American spiritual tradition.
Hodu L’Adonai ki tov / Give
thanks for God for all God’s goodness
Ki l’olam chasdo / For God’s
compassion is unending! (Psalm 118)
L’Shalom (In Peace),
Rabbi Eitan Weiner-Kaplow
Deuteronomy 8:7-18
7 For the Eternal
your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams and springs and
fountains issuing from plain and hill; 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines,
figs, and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey; 9 a land where you may
eat food without scarcity, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are
iron and from whose hills you can mine copper.
10 When you have eaten your fill, give thanks to the Eternal your God
for the good land, which God has given you.
11 Take care lest you forget the Eternal your God and fail to keep God’s
commandments, God’s rules and God’s laws, which I enjoin upon you today. 12 When you have eaten your fill, and have
built fine houses to live in, 13 and your herds and flocks have multiplied, and
your silver and gold have increased, and everything you own has prospered, 14
beware lest your heart grow haughty and you forget the Eternal your God - who
freed you from the land of Egypt, the house of bondage; 15 who led you through
the great and terrible wilderness with its serpents and scorpions, a parched
land with no water in it, who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock;
16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your ancestors had never
known, in order to test you by hardships only to benefit you in the end - 17
and you say to yourselves, “My own power and the might of you own had have won
this wealth for me.” 18 Remember that it
is the Eternal your God who gives you the power to get wealth, in fulfillment of
the covenant that God made on oath with your ancestors, as is still the case.
We Give Away our Thanks
We give away our thanks to the earth,
which gives us our home. (All: We give away our
thanks!)
We give away our thanks to the rivers and lakes and
oceans,
which give away their water. (All: We give away our
thanks!)
We give away our thanks to the trees,
which give away fruits and nuts. (All: We give away our thanks!)
We give away our thanks to the wind,
which brings rain to water the plants. (All: We give away our thanks!)
We give away our thanks to the sun,
which gives away warmth and light. (All: We give away our thanks!)
All beings on earth, the trees, the animals, the
wind and the rivers -
give away to one another - so that all
is in balance.
We give away our promise to begin to learn how to
stay in balance -
with
all the earth. (All:
We give away our thanks!)
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