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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Honey

The Israelites in the Wilderness ate something called manna. It is described as a miraculous food. What did it taste like?

The ratio of 1:60 represents the threshold of an experience. The Talmud applies this concept to various experiences that people wonder about.

Therefore, if you want to "taste" manna to get an idea of what the experience of manna was like, taste some date honey. Experientially, honey is 1/60 the sweetness of manna, just the threshold of tasting it.

Talmud Brachot 57b

Click to hear Rabbi Gottlieb's cogent wisdom on this topic....

The Whole Megilla

15 Adar 5772
8-9 March 2012

The Purim story is traditionally read as yet another episode in the on-going battle with the Jewish People's great nemesis Amalek, a race or culture descended from Jacob's twin brother, Esav.

On the Shabbat before Purim we read a special Torah passage instructing us to remember Amalek, for his descendants will try to destroy us time and itme again.

The Talmud (ca. 500 CE) predicts that in the future Amalek will be found in a place called "Germamia", made up of 300 kingdoms. Beware should they unite, warns the Talmud, "for they will seek to destroy the entire world..."

Genesis 36:16; Deuteronomy 25:17-19; Talmud Megilla 6b



This More Info link takes you to the R. Shraga Simmons article on Haman and Amalek.