Thanksgiving Homily 2018

A version of this homily was delivered at St. Frances de Chantal RC Church in Wantagh, NY, on November 21, 2018, during the Wantagh Interfaith Thanksgiving Service.

Thank you for the kind welcome!  I’d like to thank the members of the Wantagh Interfaith Clergy Council; the community, clergy, and leadership of St. Frances de Chantal; and especially Father Greg Cappuccino for the kind welcome and invitation to preach on this evening of Thanksgiving.  Thank you also to our choir for adding such joy and spirit to this evening!  It’s not easy being the new guy in town, but one of the blessings is that I get to preach here tonight, before one of my favorite holidays.

Tomorrow we will gather around our Thanksgiving tables.  Whether we serve the Thanksgiving meal as lunch or as dinner, or at a point in between when finally everything is ready and warm at the same time, many of us will participate in the same ritual.  Together with our families of origin and of choice; with our friends and neighbors; and perhaps even as we break bread with new friends we meet for the first time tomorrow, we will all pause for a moment to consider what it is that we are thankful for.  We will go around the table and each share those parts of our lives for which we are grateful, and for which our hearts are full. 

Now, I’ve been cooking all day, so if you’d please indulge me, I’d like to get a head start on my list…There are many things for which I have immense gratitude this year.  First, I am thankful for my health of mind and body.  The human body is an imperfect creation, and I recognize that so many struggle each day.  I am thankful for my family.  Too many are estranged from loved ones, grapple with loneliness, and have no one to turn to when in need.  I am thankful that I have a comfortable home to go to each night, when so many are without.  I am thankful for my community and congregation, and the opportunities that have been afforded me by my profession and calling.  Too many are without work, or underemployed, or suffering as prices rise but incomes stagnate.

That list may match yours in some ways.  But this year, and this evening, as we gather together to ask the Lord’s blessings, I must tell you all that I am also thankful for you.  For it was you,  this interfaith community, who showed up at Temple B’nai Torah just a few weeks back, as we paid tribute to the 11 worshippers, gunned-down in the midst of prayer, in the senseless massacre at the Tree of Life congregation in Pittsburgh.  The attack on that synagogue left me shaken as a rabbi, left my soul aching, and left me wondering what is next for the Jewish community in America.  But then, Rabbi Nacht, whose partnership I have been immensely grateful for these last months, put out a call to our friends and neighbors, the pastors, reverends, and ministers you have heard from this evening, and you all showed up for us.  You brought your communities with you to mourn with us and to lend us your strength.  You lifted your voices in prayer alongside us just as we are all doing tonight.  And you stood beside us, reminding us that the Jewish community is not alone in the fight against anti-Semitism and hatred of all forms.

And then, something miraculous happened that afternoon: that part of my soul that had been beaten down was lifted up.  Each day in the morning, Jews bless God as the lifter of the fallen.  But when my soul was downtrodden, you lifted me.  I called out from the depths, I looked up wondering from where my help would come, and there you were, our community.  The prayers rising to the heavens, and ringing in my ears brought such comfort, and made me recognize that among the many things for which I am thankful, I am also thankful for America.  Though America, and we Americans, often fall short of our ideals, the times when we get it right emphasize what a gift this nation is and can be.  For helping me to feel this, and for healing my soul, I thank you as well.

It is the premise and the promise of America that neighbors ought to be of different backgrounds, and that those neighbors can and should come together in times of hardship and struggle, as well as times of celebration.  It is in the premise and the promise of America that people of different faiths come together in our schools, in our armed services, and in our businesses, and that those differences don’t alienate us from each other, but rather enrich us.  It is the premise and the promise of America that the differences don’t matter, that above all else, we are all Americans.  As an immigrant myself, it is the concept of “E pluribus Unum,” “out of many, one,” that makes America wonderful.  It is up to all of us to remember that.  When we gathered together at B’nai Torah, I was reminded of that truth about us and about our nation.  And this evening only solidifies what I was reminded of those weeks ago.

Tomorrow, as you take a moment around your tables, consider the gratitude we ought to show to the promise of this nation, which has afforded all of us opportunities unlike any other place on earth.  When we, or our parents, or grandparents, or however far back, made our way to these shores, it was because this nation promised us that what unites us is stronger than what differentiates us.  Humans are imperfect and fallible.  And this nation is run by humans, so this nation will always be a work in progress, as we humans are always a work in progress.  But the promise of America, that individuals can come together, can help one another, can care for each other, can look out for the other, that promise endures.  I am thankful for that promise, and urge us all to recognize that tomorrow.

But, for that promise to endure, we all have to do more.  We see the divide growing between us and our neighbors.  We see the rancor, built of anonymity, which can only be resolved by community building.  And so, if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I’m going to preach to the clergy.  We have to do more together.  We have to come together more than once per year, or in the wake of tragedy.  If we come together, and build relationships, then our houses of worship can begin to come together.  If our houses of worship come together, the fabric of our community is strengthened, we become neighbors instead of strangers.  When we become neighbors, we look out for each other.  And when we look out for each other, we strengthen the promise of America.  And when that promise is strengthened, we all have much more to be thankful for.  Let us therefore work together to bring this clergy council into a new generation.  One which seeks to meet regularly, to understand what’s happening in our town, and in our neighborhoods.  Let us become true friends, bound by faith, even as our faiths differ.  Let our congregations’ doors be open to each other, such that when, God forbid, another tragedy strikes, we do not show up to support strangers or even neighbors, no we show up to support our friends. 

What am I thankful for?  I am thankful for you.  I’m thankful for this community, and I am thankful for the opportunities this nation allows us to meet and become friends with people of all faiths and backgrounds.  Out of the many traditions in this room, we are indeed one on this night.  Let us continue that work tomorrow, and the next day.

I’d like to close with a prayer for Thanksgiving:

Sing Hallelujah - a poem for Thanksgiving
By Stacey Robinson

Sing praise and
shout hallelujah,
as bullets sing their siren song
and death is never far;
and sing praise
while fires rage and
children fall silent
behind barbed wire fences, and
children fall silent
with bellies distended, and
children fall silent
as their homes are devoured,
and they race against monsters and time.
Sing praise, for the monsters are winning.

Free the captive.
Feed the hungry.
Give shelter to those in need.
This is my song,
this praises my name -
Be kind.
Work for peace.
Hallelujah!
Hope is an action.
Pray with your feet.
Hallelujah!
Lift your eyes and see God
In the eyes of the other.
Hallelujah!

All the earth is holy ground.
The bush burns,
do you not see?
Open your eyes -
there are such wonders!
Open your heart -
there is such love!
Sing hallelujah!

This is my bounty.
This the glory.
For this we give thanks.

For the richness of life,
And the jagged edges that cut
and draw blood,
And the beauty
In the sound of rain
and silence,

We give thanks.

For the Creator of eternity
and time,
Who calls to us in darkness
and light,
In our hunger
And our want,

We give thanks.

For the fullness,
For the stones that bite
And the bedrock upon which we stand,
For the hands that lift us,
And the song that fills us

We give thanks.

For our breath,
For our bodies
For the grace of  healing,
And the blessing of light,
So that we can taste the sweet,
The sharp,
The weary,
Lonely,
Lovley
Holiness of this day
Sing hallelujah
And give thanks.

May we all have a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

East Meadow Interfaith Thanksgiving Homily: Make Every Day Thanksgiving

A version of this sermon was delivered at the 2017 East Meadow Interfaith Thanksgiving Service on November 19, 2017 at the East Meadow United Methodist Church.

Good evening friends.  The last time I was honored with this opportunity to preach to our community was in 2013 and I had just been installed as the Rabbi at Temple Emanu-El.  You may recall that was the year that Chanukah and Thanksgiving coincided.  Let me thank Pastor Johnson-Agu for allowing me the honor of speaking this evening, as well as Rabbi Cohen-Rosenberg for her work organizing this evening’s service and the work she does to coordinate our Interfaith Council all year.  And thank you all for being with us as well.  This is a service to which I know so many, including myself, look forward every year.

This year, I must admit, however, is more than a little bittersweet for me and my community.  As you may have read in the Herald or heard in the supermarket, this coming July, Temple Emanu-El is merging into Temple B’nai Torah in Wantagh.  We fully anticipate that we will continue to be a part of the East Meadow Interfaith Council, as so many of our members will still be residents of East Meadow, and we look forward to being with you for this service in years to come, but our congregation will no longer have an East Meadow address.  It is sad; but it is the right decision for our congregation.

And so, before I do anything else, I offer my sincerest thanks to the East Meadow Faith Community on behalf of our congregation and our congregants.  We have been a part of the fabric of this community for 68 years and it is truly sad that we must go.  For the last three generations, we have called East Meadow our home.  This coming July, we will move.  It is less than 5 miles away from our current address, but it is also a world away, even if it is just over the border into Wantagh.  The specific reasons for our decision are best left explained at another opportunity.  So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I thank you and your communities for the many decades of support, community, and collegiality.

*      *      *

Each year "we gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing" and to give thanks.  And Thanksgiving is an occasion on which we publicly dedicate ourselves to gratitude, both personally and communally.  But it sometimes seems like we have decided that Thanksgiving is the only day of the year that we offer our thanks in such a public manner.  Thanksgiving is a once a year event, like New Year’s or a Birthday.  But unlike those events, Thanksgiving ought not be the only time that we practice gratitude and thankfulness in this manner.  Thanksgiving should be the day on which we model all other days of the year: not an exception, but the rule.  

Jewish tradition has a lot to teach us about thankfulness and what it means to have gratitude.  How can we can begin to work toward a commitment to thankfulness?  By committing to make every day a day of Thanksgiving!

To start, the term for gratitude in Hebrew is Hakarat HaTov, which literally translates to “recognition of the good.”  Embedded in our understanding of being thankful is a sense that there is a lot of good in the world, but we have to do the work to recognize it.  We have to take the time to think about that which is good in our lives, especially all that we might take for granted.  This act of recognizing the good grants us an opportunity to mimic the divine.  We learn in the first chapter of Genesis that as God creates the world, God makes a point on each day to recognize the good.

Our nature as humans, however, means that it’s often easier to complain about the difficulties we face.  Some of this is because we can all relate.  We all know what it means to be stuck in traffic or delayed in an endless security line.  We get what it means to be disappointed.  Negative feelings come on fast and seek commonality with others.

When we experience something good, we may understand that feeling to be quite personal, requiring a deeper connection or relationship with another in order to share it.  Recognizing the bad is easy; and our modern lives have been built on valuing the easier, faster, and more convenient.  We commiserate easily with others about the bad.  How many times have you been in a line and someone shares their frustration with how long the line is or how slowly it’s moving? 

Recognizing the good, on the other hand, asks that we focus on how wonderful it is that we’re in line about to see a show, or get on a plane to travel to see a loved one or see a place we’ve always wanted to visit. Recognizing the good means that we ought to focus on the gifts we are given.  It is a matter of faith to recognize the good.  It requires that we pause to let in the good and let out the gratitude.  

Recognizing the good takes time.  At least we think it does.  But, truthfully, it takes no more time than focusing on the negative.  It’s about our mindset.  Are we programmed to seek out the good and give thanks or are we programmed to seek out and highlight the negative?  Have we programmed ourselves to do one over the other?  We can retrain our minds to recognize the good simply by doing so over and over again.  Gratitude begets happiness, which begets more gratitude.

Let us retrain ourselves to see the good, recognize it and be grateful for it.  Let us not allow Thanksgiving to be the once a year holiday where we force ourselves to see the good!  Let the good that we see in our lives every day be called out and heralded.  This is perhaps what Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom means when he describes thankfulness as "a transformative act of faith."[1]  We are transformed by seeking out the good!

And this is now where I’ll preach to the choir, because people of faith often have more ability to recognize the good and show gratitude because our faiths allow us a conduit through which we can channel our gratitude. Whatever concept of the divine we may hold in our hearts and souls, it is a shared trait that we show our thanks and offer prayers of thanksgiving to the Source of Creation.

Judaism, as all faiths, has many prayers of thanksgiving and though they are particular to our worship, they contain many universal truths about what it means to be thankful and show gratitude for the good we recognize in our lives.

One blessing of thanksgiving is found in all three of the Jewish daily prayer services, just before a blessing for peace.[2]  Traditionally, this blessing is first said independently as a part of a litany of many blessings. These blessings are then repeated by a prayer leader when one is present.  The prayer leader has the authority to recite all the blessings of this litany on behalf of the community, and all we have to do is agree with an Amen.  There is one exception.  When the repetition of the blessing of thanksgiving is offered by the leader, each member of the congregation recites it on their own as well.  Tradition explains that this is because no one may offer thanks on our behalf.[3] 

The universal truth of this tradition is that we have to do it ourselves.  We are not supposed to send anyone to be thankful on our behalf.  True thankfulness cannot be outsourced, not even to a prayer leader.  We have to recognize the good in our own lives and show our own gratitude and our own appreciation.  No one can do it for us.

This blessing of Thanksgiving begins in scripture.  In the Torah, the Books of Moses, God commands a series of sacrifices, among them, the Thanksgiving offering.  For the last 2000 or so years, prayers have taken the place of sacrifices in Jewish worship, which is why we have that blessing of Thanksgiving.  The ancient rabbis[4] teach us that in the messianic age, all the sacrifices and prayers will be cancelled, with one exception: the Thanksgiving.  Jewish belief is that the messianic age will be a time when no one will have any needs and the universe will be complete and at peace.  We won’t need to ask for anything.  We won’t need to recognize God’s greatness.  The only thing that we will need to do is give thanks.  The messianic age will be an age of pure thankfulness. 

The universal lesson here is that thankfulness never goes out of style and will never not be necessary.  If we will have all our needs met in the messianic age, and yet we will still need to offer thanks, how much more important is our gratitude now for the good things we do have in our lives? 

Gratitude, thankfulness, recognizing the good.  These are eternal requirements.  Not even the messiah undoes their necessity in the world!  Our gratitude is always necessary.  And it is essential that it always be personally given.  If we remember these lessons, we can begin to work to make every day a day of Thanksgiving, rather than just the 4^th Thursday in November.

Rav Kook, the first chief rabbi of Israel once taught[5], and I’m paraphrasing here, that without gratitude and recognizing the good, our spirits lose their sparkle and their shine.  By recognizing the good, we keep that sparkle in our soul, we keep the light of God in our beings, and we remain able to be bearers of that light.  Our souls shine brightly when we are grateful.  Our spirits dazzle as they emit the divine light.

May we all work to let our spirits shine in this next year and in the days ahead.  May we learn to recognize the good, and through that good offer our gratitude to God.  In doing so we allow God’s light to break forth like the dawn.  In doing so we taste the messianic age in our own day.  In doing so we can make every day a day of Thanksgiving.

May we all have a blessed and safe holiday.

Thank you.

---

[1] Note on Modeh Ani, Sacks Koren Siddur, p. 5

[2] Referring to Modim

[3] Rabbi Doug Zelden

[4] Vayikra Rabbah 9:7

[5] For the Perplexed of the Generation 4:9

Interfaith Thanksgiving Sermon - Rededication to Thanksgiving

A version of this sermon was presented on November 24, 2013 at the East Meadow Interfaith Thanksgiving Service held at East Meadow United Methodist Church.

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