Thanksgiving is an “American holiday.” For those of us in the United States, Thanks-giving is a holiday we can share with or without religious undertones. However, those who created this holiday centuries ago, were moved profoundly by their faith and their desire to praise and giving thanks to the One and sacred oneness. It was their spiritual journey that gave heightened meaning to their physical survival and their gratitude for the sustenance that brought them to the table together for the first Thanksgiving.
Yet, for as brilliantly secular as our American Thanksgiving is – uniting all Americans in a holiday of gratitude – this holiday mirrors, in so many ways, our Jewish heritage of giving thanks. Our liturgy is ripe with daily opportunities for appreciation, as is evidenced by these words from our daily Amidah prayer of thanks – From generation to generation may we thank You and count Your praises: evening, morning, and noon … Baruch Atah Adonai hatov shimcha ul’cha na’eh l’hodot – Holy One of Blessing, Source of goodness, it is pleasing to give thanks to You.
If you are looking for a way to bring Jewish values and our tradition of thanks-giving to your Thanksgiving table, here are several different options drawn from ritualwell.org , an amazing resource where you can find, create, and share rituals of all kinds. Our siddur, Kol Haneshamah , and many other modern siddurim, have prayers for American holidays as well as Jewish holidays. Hag Sameach!
Thanksgiving Day: A Modern Psalm
By Debbie Perlman, z”l | Reading
How easy to praise You, Beloved One,
For abundance, for cups brim filled;
How can we not delight in Your majesty,
Your endless blessings to us.
How simple our thanks, Beloved One,
For laden tables, for gathered families,
Shoulders touching in the intimacy of the meal
You have spread before us.
Teach us to thank and bless Your name,
When cups are empty and thirst is great;
Put our hands together to replenish,
Finding blessing in tiny sips.
Beloved One, to thank and bless You,
We find hope in uncertainty
And triumph in shaky steps.
We recreate abundance for Your sake.
Thanksgiving Supplement to Birkat Hamazon
In the days of the Puritan pilgrims,
When they arrived in the land of their haven,
And suffered from hunger and cold,
And sang and prayed
To the Rock of their Salvation,
You stood by them in their time of trouble
And aroused the compassion
Of the native Indians,
Who gave them food, fowl and corn
And many other delicacies.
You saved them from starving and suffering,
And You showed them the ways of peace
With the inhabitants of the land.
Feeling gratitude, they established therefore
A day of Thanksgiving every year
For future generations to remember,
And they feed the unfortunate
With feasts of Thanksgiving.
Therefore do we also thank You
For all the goodness in our lives.
God of kindness, Lord of peace,
We thank You.
Appreciating Our Elders
By Doris Dyen and Reena Sigmund Friedman | Ritual ComponentThese questions were developed to spark and facilitate conversations across the generations gathered around the Thanksgiving table.
- What are you proudest about in your life?
- What did you learn from difficult experiences in your life?
- If you could talk to a former self, which one would you choose? What would you say to that former self?
- When you were young, what was the central issue for you? What is central for you now?
- Do you feel that God speaks to you now? If so, how? Is it different now than when you were younger?
- What are the things you would like to finish in your life?
- What would you like your yerushah /legacy to be? How would you like to pass that on?
- What do you value most?
