Rabbi's Reflection by Rabbi Eliana Fischel

In November, as the air crisps and we discard our iced coffees for pumpkin spice lattes, our minds turn toward Thanksgiving. Naturally, we think of turkeys, sweet potatoes, and stuffings (my favorite — vegetarian, of course!). We think of joining together with family — watching the parade or the game together on television, maybe even throwing around a football outside. With all of the preparations and excitement, even just with our daily lives and routines, it is easy to forget the main message of the holiday — to give thanks.

In Hebrew, one of the names for Thanksgiving is Yom Hodu — an example of Hebrew’s propensity toward wordplay. Most obviously, hodu comes from the verb, “to give thanks.” However, hodu also means “turkey.” Thus, Yom Hodu can mean both “Thanksgiving” and “Turkey Day”! Even in Israel, the meaning of this holiday has been intertwined to the actions we take to celebrate. And what good actions they are!

However, I want to focus on the “thanks” side of hodu. Here, at Washington Hebrew Congregation, we have a lot for which we are thankful. October was a month of firsts. We celebrated Shabbat in new ways with our Macomb St. and District Shabbat experiences. We loved bringing in Shabbat with good food, thoughtful Torah Study, and spiritual services. Thank you for bringing your voices to those experiences, and we look forward to seeing you next time — they cannot happen without you!

I am also particularly grateful this month, as I am still beaming from my Installation Shabbat. I have felt welcomed in this community from the minute I walked through the doors. Now, I feel like family. Thank you to everyone who made that night magnificent. All the more so, thank you all for allowing me into your lives and for joining me in this covenantal relationship.

This Thanksgiving, as we sit around our decadent tables, let us give thanks. Give thanks for the food on our tables. Give thanks for good conversation and laughter. Give thanks for friends and family. Give thanks for those who have come before us, who may no longer be sitting at the table. Give thanks for holy communities that remind us we are never alone.

Every Friday evening, as part of our Shabbat service, we recite Psalm 92, “How good is it to give thanks to the Eternal, to sing praises unto Your name, O Most High.”

This Psalm is a reminder that we need not wait until Thanksgiving to relay our thanks. Rather, each week, we can recite a prayer of thanksgiving to the Holy One and words of thanksgiving to our loved ones. As the Psalm states, these words are “good,” not just because they make others feel good, but rather because they are good for us. We feel good, we can recognize good, and we can do good when we state our gratefulness.

As if that were not enough of a reminder, in our daily Amidah, we have a blessing for thanksgiving. If we so choose, we can recite each and every day, “Modim anachnu lach, we acknowledge with thanks…” Mishkan T’filah, our Reform prayer book, offers a creative understanding for this prayer. I invite you to use these words throughout the month of November and, perhaps, around your Thanksgiving tables:

God of Goodness, we give thanks for the gift of life, wonder beyond words; for the awareness of soul, our light within; for the world around us, so filled with beauty; for the richness of the earth, which day by day sustains us; for all these and more, we offer thanks.

Blessed are You, Adonai, Your Name is Goodness, and You are worthy of thanksgiving. And let us say: amen.