Weekly D'var Torah

Take a look at Rabbi Paul Kipnes’ ideas for adding Jewish inspiration to your Thanksgiving Celebration!

Among the Twelve Tribes of Israel is the tribe of Judah- our tribe. 

When she gave birth to her son, Leah, our mother, wife of Jacob, said;

This time I shall give thanks to G-d!

In Hebrew, the word for giving thanks is YDH- ידה.  Judah was Leah’s fourth child.  From an unwelcome wife, forced on Jacob through deception, Leah has been redeemed as the mother of Israel.  Her sense of gratitude, wonder and relief arrives to us intact across the centuries.

Judah is the patriarch of our tribe, the only tribe left intact of the twelve.  The name Judah became the name of the ancestral land: the land of Judea.  People of Judea became known as- Jews.

Gratitude and proclaiming G-d’s presence and support is our spiritual core. 

It’s strange that this small group, our Jewish family, who has suffered so much devastation, disaster and loss is known by our gratitude to G-d.  A gratitude embedded in our very name.

Our gratitude is not a naive trust that everything is going to be just fine.  Our gratitude isn’t a response to the world.  We might be known as Judah, the Thanksgivers, but we also know that being angry at G-d, protesting injustice and suffering and having that right to anger and protest affirmed is part and parcel of being Jewish.

Gratitude isn’t a response- it’s a secret of survival.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks toward the end of his life of service as he battled a dread disease that ultimately took his life, explained it like this:

When Jacob battled the angel all night, the heavenly opponent severely injured him.  But Jacob refused to yield and held on to the very last.

Let me go! Said the angel.  For dawn is breaking.

And then Jacob said something profound:

I will not release you until you give me a blessing.

And the angel does: No longer will you be called just Jacob- but now you shall be called Israel, G-d’s warrior, for you have fought adversaries mortal and divine and prevailed.

Our stubborn insistence on wresting blessing and affirmation from challenges no matter what they are is the essence of being a Jew.  Jacob walks with a limp for the rest of his life- but that does not stop him for holding on, from wrestling with obstacles and misfortunes until he can refine from the flames a bright core of life, hope and blessing. 

On this Thanksgiving Holiday, we will sit, G-d willing, with family and friends and celebrate the many, many blessings we enjoy.  We will also continue to struggle with the adversaries whether within or without. 

But no matter what, we will proclaim Toddah- thanksgiving, as Israel’s great singer-songwriter said; “for the honey and for the sting, for the bitter and for the sweet” for we know that we will find a way to harvest, manifest and become blessing-

Happy Thanksgiving!