Good evening. I’m Rabbi Daniel Bar-Nahum and I am the newly installed Rabbi at Temple Emanu-El of East Meadow. First, let me thank Rev. Stevens for her hard work in hosting and planning this special service. I have come to learn quickly that one of the many traditions of this service is that the newest clergy in town is honored by giving the homily, and I thank you for this honor.
I must say that I am very excited because this is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. Let me explain what I mean by that, because I don’t mean that I refuse to do this ever again, God forbid!
Tonight, I have a once in a lifetime opportunity because this year, for what is ostensibly the first time in history, and the last time ever, the holidays of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah coincide such that Thanksgiving, which is this Thursday is also the first day of Hanukkah. As Jews, we begin our holidays the evening before, so we will be lighting our candles beginning on Wednesday evening this week. In the years 2070 and 2165, the first candle of Hanukkah’s eight will be lit on Thanksgiving night, so the first day of Hanukkah will not be on Thanksgiving, but rather Black Friday, which is a sermon for another time.
This coincidental celebration is a quirk of the confluence of the Hebrew and American calendars. Let me explain, briefly. Thanksgiving is always the 4th Thursday of the month, that part’s easy. Hanukkah is always the 25th of the Hebrew month of Kislev, which usually falls in mid-December. But, the Jewish calendar is based on the moon, and lunar months are only 29 or 30 days. This means that a Jewish 12-month year is always a couple weeks shorter than our January to December 12-month year. We make up for this shortfall of days by adding an additional month, a leap month, into our calendar 7 out of every 19 years in a system that I trust the internet to tell me about. This is why Jewish holidays seemingly drift around the calendar. They shift a couple weeks earlier for a couple years and then we adjust the calendar and push everything a month forward.
This year, Hanukkah is as early as it will ever be and Thanksgiving is as late as it can ever be, and even though the calendars do cycle, the first day of Hanukkah and Thanksgiving Day will never again coincide. In the spirit of truth, I must admit that calculations have shown that this will actually happen again in the year 79,811. This is why this year’s homily is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity for me!
Tradition tells us that Hanukkah celebrates an important victory for Jewish worship and Jewish autonomy. In the 2nd century BCE, the Syrian Greeks led by Antiochus had outlawed Jewish worship in Judea, in what is modern day Israel. The Jews revolted against the Greek decrees and fought to maintain autonomy of their nation and their worship. The Greeks had a habit of taking over religious sites and converting them to Greek temples to their gods. The Greeks did this with the Temple in Jerusalem. When the Maccabees defeated the Greeks, they rededicated the Temple in Jerusalem to God. The work Hanukkah means dedication or in this case, rededication. Hanukkah is about a fight for religious freedom.
Thanksgiving is also about religious freedom. When the pilgrims made their way to these shores, they did so in order to maintain their identity and their religious convictions. They came from a place where the political and religious turmoil did not allow them to worship as they saw fit. These two holidays, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah celebrate, at their core, freedom of worship and the ability to choose how to worship.
There is much that we can simply take in about Hanukkah and Thanksgiving, but there is more that we can be challenged to do and to think about.
Thanksgiving is also a day when we pause, with our compatriots all across this country, and recognize the blessings and the gifts that we have. As we gather together on Thanksgiving, we look around at our families and our friends, at our homes and the festive meals we have been planning for days and are blessed to set upon our table. In the midst of the parades and the football, the sales and the anxiety of the upcoming Holiday Season, we pause and reflect on what really matters. We recognize those aspects of our lives which are deserving of thanks and we name them. “What am I thankful for this year?” we ask. And then everyone gets a turn to share. This small ritual of Thanksgiving is so important because it highlights an important aspect of what it means to be American and what it means to be a person of religious conviction: thankfulness.
What will you answer when it is your turn? How will you find ways to show your thanks on Thanksgiving Day?
One element of thankfulness is recognition. A quick look at the psalms shows us that when we thank God, we name those things for which we are thankful. From Psalm 136: “O give thanks to the Eternal, for He is good, for His kindness is forever…Who makes the heavens in wisdom…who stamps firm the earth on the waters, who makes the great lights…” It goes on to name the many miracles that the Eternal wrought for our ancestors in ancient days. The Psalmist is teaching us that to be thankful is to recognize our gifts and name them. When we look at our families and our friends, our coworkers or even strangers whom we have invited to share our bounty, and we name that for which we are thankful, we participate in thanks of recognition.
Another aspect of thankfulness is appreciation. It is not just about naming those things for which we are thankful. By giving ourselves over to appreciation, we recognize in others and in the Divine Presence those elements which make our lives special and which give it true meaning. Appreciation involves an understanding of why what we have is special and why we are so fortunate to have it. Those facets of our lives which we appreciate most are often those which are intangible. The laughter following a decades’ old family joke. The smell of the one recipe without which it’s just not Thanksgiving. The sense of warmth of a family gathered together. The memories of Thanksgivings past, our loved ones of blessed memory vivid in our minds. These intangibles are the sustenance on which a thanksgiving meal is truly built. When Hannah, in First Samuel (2), prays to the Eternal with words of praise for God’s might, she does so in thanks for the family that was granted her when it seemed impossible. Hannah appreciates what God does for her and so she prays a prayer of thanksgiving.
Thankfulness seems easy when broken down this way. First, naming: what do I have that I am thankful for? Second: Appreciation, how do I feel about having these things? A two-step process.
Unfortunately, too often we don’t take the time to do this. Too often we expect. We expect that we will have the comforts of life to which we have become accustomed. We expect that everything will work exactly as it should all the time. That which we expect is the common, the habitual, the usual. And, rather than be thankful on a daily basis for these pieces of our lives, too often we take them for granted.
Toward the beginning of a Jewish morning service, there are two blessings juxtaposed one right next to the other. One is called Asher Yatzar and one is called Elohai Neshamah. These two blessings, respectively, thank and bless God for the miracle of a working body and the miracle of an independent soul. These two blessings are traditionally the first two blessings one recites upon waking each morning. Each morning, therefore, Jewish tradition asks us to wake up, recognize the expected, and thank God for them. Rather than take for granted the working of the body, mind and soul, we ought to recognize the blessings inherent in them and thank God for them. In our modern lives, too much is expected, not enough is revered, and even less is taken for what it is, a blessing.
But that is not the case on Thanksgiving. On this one day, seemingly everyone takes the time to say thank you and appreciate what they have. On this one day, seemingly the entire nation pauses in a moment of gratitude. This year, as Hanukkah, a festival of rededication, and Thanksgiving coincide, I challenge us: how can we rededicate ourselves to a spirit of thankfulness? Thankfulness for the daily gifts which we have. Thankfulness for the miracles of every day modern living. Thankfulness for the easy and the hard in life. How can we make it so that Thanksgiving and the sentiment surrounding it are the rule, not the exception? How can we begin to live our lives in the spirit of gratitude rather than the spirit of expectation?
A couple of suggestions. First, bring back the dying art of the handwritten thank you note. A note of this kind requires that you name and appreciate. And, the recipient knows that you are appreciative and that their work did not go unnoticed. Second, start a gratitude journal. Every day, take one to two minutes and write down one thing, or many, for which you are thankful. Jot it down in a notebook and name and appreciate the blessings in your life. These notes can serve as a form of prayer, which is the third suggestion: When you pray, be sure to thank God. Thank God for the good. Thank God for the challenging. Thank God for the usual. Thank God for the unusual. Show God your appreciation! “Shout out to the Eternal! … Worship the Eternal in rejoicing; come before God in joyous song. Know that God made us and we are God’s. Come into God’s gates in thanksgiving, God’s courts in praise. Acclaim God, bless God’s name, for the Eternal is good, God’s kindnesses and God’s faithfulness last for all generations.” (Psalm 100)
Let us all commit to making this year’s Thanksgiving the day we decided to begin in earnest showing our appreciation for our lives and for the many gifts and blessings we have. Yes, life can be difficult at times and sometimes we may feel like there is very little to be thankful for. But when we work hard at finding even the smallest of things… When we are thankful daily, habitually, we are more keenly aware of the world around us, our relationships, and our needs. We are also, and perhaps most importantly, more aware of God’s workings in this world. And, when we are aware of God’s working in the world, we are better able to see our place in the ongoing work of Creation. We find ourselves rededicated not just to thankfulness, gratitude and appreciation, but, like the Temple in Jerusalem, rededicated to the Eternal. Rededicated to serving God with gladness.
May God bless us all with many gifts over these next weeks. May God look down upon us with favor. And let us all be willing to say thank you.
Happy Thanksgiving
Thanks Rabbi for the beautiful reflection on Thanksgiving and Hanukah and the reminder to be thankful for the gifts we have been given.
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