Giving thanks is one of the most universal of religious expressions. Every religion and culture has rituals, holidays, and customs that allow people to acknowledge the many gifts with which the Almighty has blessed us. The Jewish tradition is no exception. In ancient times numerous animal sacrifices, meal offerings, and libations were placed upon the altar of the Temple in Jerusalem to thank God and celebrate His goodness as well as to seek forgiveness for sin and wrongdoing. The sacrificial system was abolished with the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in the year 70. Many Jews continue to pray these many centuries for a restoration of the Temple and its sacrifices while others believe that prayer, righteous deeds, study, and meditation not only take the place of those sacrificial offerings now, but represent higher expressions of worship for Jews. While they pray for the rebuilding of the Temple as a central shrine for Jewish reflection, they do not desire a return to what is seen as a more primitive form of worship. Even the ancient rabbis concede that one day all of the sacrifices will be abolished, except for one, and that is the thanksgiving offering. We may reach a time of perfection when we no longer require sin-offerings and guilt-offerings, but we always will need to give thanks.
Three times each day, as the traditional Jew prays for the return of God’s Presence to Zion, he or she offers thanks for all of the miracles and wonders which we experience in this world, “evening, morn, and noon.” Beyond this, we are told that we should acknowledge God at least one hundred times daily with the familiar blessing formula of “Baruch ata Adonay Eloheinu Melech HaOlam…” “Praised are You, Lord our God, Sovereign of the universe….” Not only do we thank God for the food we eat with appropriate blessings before and after our meals, but we acknowledge His graciousness at every step of our morning preparations and again before we go to bed. In formal prayer services, three times a day, more than three-quarters of the hundred blessings appear. There are blessings when we smell pleasant fragrances, hear good news or bad, experience wondrous phenomena of nature, thunder, lightning, earthquakes and comets. We say a blessing even after going to the bathroom, praising the Lord who keeps our bodies functioning properly.
Each week, we set aside the Sabbath Day as a tribute to God who created all that exists and ceased His work on the seventh day so that we, as partners of the Divine, might complete the work of creation on the other six. We feast and celebrate at a weekly thanksgiving dinner on Friday night and again on Saturday. So important is this family gathering week after week, that some very traditional Jews fail to understand the significance of holding a secular Thanksgiving dinner on the last Thursday of November. It seems a bit redundant perhaps.
I would disagree. Truly there is no end to God’s blessings of us in this world and another opportunity to thank the Almighty for all He does for us is always welcome. We can never thank God enough. More significantly, however, our national day of thanksgiving provides us Jews with an opportunity to emphasize all that we share with our non-Jewish neighbors, our common traditions, aspirations, and prayers. As unique as our rituals may seem and as strange as the Hebrew words of our prayers may sound, our tradition teaches similar values to those taught by other faiths practiced by our neighbors and indeed we all share the impulse to offer thanks to God.
We are pleased this year at Temple Israel to be able to host the first of what is anticipated to be an annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service sponsored by the Manchester Interfaith Clergy Association. This service will take place on Sunday evening, November 18th at 7:00 p.m. at Temple Israel, 66 Salmon Street, Manchester. People of all faiths are invited. The service will include reflections on Thanksgiving by a Catholic priest, a rabbi, and a Muslim professor. Songs, hymns and chants from different traditions will be heard and some of the Thanksgiving standards will be sung. Other Christian clergy and a Unitarian minister will be taking part in the service as well. We hope that our neighbors regardless of religious affiliation will find this gathering to be meaningful as we approach our national day of thanksgiving and emphasize how much more brings us together than divides us. The Temple will provide a reception and fellowship gathering following the service.