By this time next week, many of us will still be recovering from a Thanksgiving meal like no other before in our lifetime. Though we will be comforted by immediate family and familiar foods, the family and friends we typically invite will be missing from most of our tables, perhaps replaced by phone or zoom calls to loved ones, granting a bittersweet aura to our festivities.
The past half-year has brought insecurity, isolation, and loss to so many. For some, next week will likely not be a Thanksgiving at all, as many Americans remain in the throes of grief or financial insolvency. To them, we owe our commitment—to continue taking the threat of coronavirus seriously and to perform whatever measures, no matter how inconvenient, will result in a safer and swifter conclusion to this pandemic.
But we also owe them what we owe ourselves in this Thanksgiving season—the opportunity to practice hakarat hatov, to appreciate the blessings we enjoy—as individuals, as families, and as a community. By embracing hakarat hatov, we give ourselves the gift of perspective that can only be born from gratitude, and, at the same time, acknowledge the profound suffering that afflicts so many.
On this Thanksgiving, we pray that those of us unburdened by loss or apprehension count our blessings and, in so doing, resolve to share those blessings with all who are in need.
— Rabbi Josh Knobel