Happy (Chassidic) Thanksgiving!
I love Thanksgiving; it’s a cozy, family oriented, happy day, a day to celebrate our country and very Jewish approach to life :). Most of our daily prayers and in a certain sense the foundation for serving G-d is based on gratitude and giving thanks for all that we have and are.
It is praiseworthy that a country gets together to officially thank our common creator for what we have. The Rebbe would often call The United States of America, a Country of Kindness. It is a blessing to be able to live here in this day and age.
To be candid, nothing is perfect in the world we live in now. The Torah teaches that before the Times of Moshiach every good also contains an element of bad. Jews haven’t always had it easy in America, and some Jews still don’t. Other groups have had it even worse than us. But there is also much good.
Thanksgiving is most noble when there are also reasons to not be thankful, and yet the person chooses to seek the good and thank Hashem. This is a kind of energetic surgery, where one cuts past the negative to highlight the positive. What happens then (in most regular situations) is that the positive becomes truly highlighted to the point where the negativity ceases to disrupt or even exist.
There is an even deeper level. A Thanksgiving for our very existence. This goes beyond looking for reasons to be grateful. We begin from a place of gratitude and use that as a lens to look through.
The Modeh Ani Prayer we say upon waking up is our way of thanking Hashem for existing. Here is the translation.
“I thank you, living and enduring king, for You have graciously returned my soul within me. Great is your faithfulness”
You are a gift, your creator has faith in you and is therefore giving you life. Just this alone is enough to feel gratitude and give thanks. What a healthy, happy way to live!
Thank G-d - Baruch HaShem!
This year Thanksgiving means even more :)
This year Thanksgiving eve fell on Rosh Chodesh Kislev, the beginning of the Jewish month; Kislev.
In 1977, on Rosh Chodesh Kislev, Chabad Chassidim and Jews the world over celebrated a day of special thanks giving to Hashem for a great kindness.
5 weeks prior, on Shemini Atzeret 1977, at the age of 76, the Rebbe suffered a massive heart attack. Many medical experts felt it would be the end of the Rebbe’s leadership. Then commenced a time of increased Prayer, Torah, and Mitzvot, all done with extra intensity and joy to send spiritual merit and blessings to help the Rebbe heal.
There were rocky times, but on Rosh Chodesh Kislev, 1977, the Rebbe was finally able to go home, which was a sign that he was well on his way to good health again.
That day became a spontaneous celebration with singing, dancing, and heartfelt Thanksgiving all night long. Far from slowing down, the Rebbe stepped things up and took his efforts and Jewish life around the globe to new heights. Since then Rosh Chodesh Kislev has been a day of celebration and Thanksgiving.
This year, these 2 thanksgivings coincided! L’chaim, L’chaim!
Click here for great reads and a video presentation by the lead cardiologist which gives a rare glance into the Rebbe’s life from a scientific perspective.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3895166/jewish/Rosh-Chodesh-Kislev.htm
May you be blessed with a year full of things and happenings to be grateful for, may you have the wisdom and presence of mind to be grateful for yourself, and always discover the positive to the extent that there is only positive left :)
Happy (Chassidic) Thanksgiving,
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Shlomo and Nechama Rothstein