November 22 2012
8 Kislev 5773
Imagine
you are the first European to visit America. It's an amazing New World!
Strange people, strange foliage, strange animals. And you see this odd
chicken-like bird for the first time. What do you call it?
Since you think you're in India, you naturally call it "Indian chicken."
Are you with me so far?
So French explorers dubbed this new bird poulet d'Inde (Indian chicken) later shortened to dinde (pronounced "dand").
English settlers called the bird turkey because they thought it looked like another type of fowl that was imported from Turkey.
Jewish explorers sided with the French and called it tarnegol hodu which means "hindu chicken" and was later shortened it to simply hodu.
What's interesting for us is that the Hebrew word HODU also happens to mean "give thanks."
Similarly,
we ourselves are called "Jews" because most of us descend from the
remnant of the 12 Tribes who survived the repeated pounding from
Assyria and Babylon 2,500 years ago. The one remaining landed tribe was
Yehuda or Judah. And that name - Judah - means "thankful".
Therefore, being "Jewish" means cultivating a Thanksgiving mindset every single day.
(I can hear it already - "Gee honey, I"m watching so much football because the rabbi told me to....)
Below: Two links on cultivating gratitude...
Article by R. Pliskin
Audio by R. Rietti
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