Jewish Thanksgiving?

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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Ghost Story

October 31, 2011
3 Cheshvan, 5772

Do you like a good ghost story?

Look no farther than the Biblical book of Samuel. There you will see one of the world's oldest ghost stories.

King Saul is desperate. He is facing a massive battle with the Philistines and is not getting any guidance from the usual prophetic channels.

In desperation, he turns to a sorceress. She is hard to find, given that Saul himself banned all sorcery a few years earlier.

He goes to her incognito and asks her to bring up the prophet Samuel, Saul's mentor, who had died a few months earlier.

To her surprise, the seance works - Samuel's ghost comes up (feet first, by the way).

"What are you disturbing me for? Is that you Saul?"

"Sorry, I just need to know what's going to happen in this battle, I'm quite afraid."

"Well, in that case, I have some good news and some bad news. Which do you want first?"

"Tell me the good news first."

"The good news is that you are eventually going to be joining me here" (i.e., despite your many mistakes, you're going to make it to the World to Come).

"Umm... that's reassuring! What's the bad news?"

"The bad news is that you're going to be joining me tomorrow...."

2 Samuel Ch. 17

Rabbi Becher's introduction to Kabbala class (audio link)

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From the Amazing Jewish Fact-a-Day Calendar

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Wishing you an amazing day!