With Thanksgiving approaching, this week’s Daily Kavanot will focus upon Jewish themes of gratitude that may help inform the contemporary Thanksgiving celebration.
Ben Zoma used to say, “A good guest says, ‘How hard has my host worked for me! He put so much meat in front of me … so much wine, so much bread … all his work was just for me.’ Meanwhile, a bad guest says, ‘What did my host do for me? I ate just one roll, one slice of meat, and one cup of wine. All his work was for his own family!'”
When Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the first national festival of Thanksgiving in 1863, the Civil War was already two years old. With few meaningful victories to its credit—other than the Battle of Gettysburg, which only repelled invading rebel forces—the Union had little to show for two years of brutal conflict. One could forgive Lincoln for not feeling thankful. Yet, with eloquence like few others in the annals of American history could muster, President Lincoln found words to express meaningful gratitude on the first national Thanksgiving:
“In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict … needful diversions of wealth and strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship … No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”
Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation of Thanksgiving serves as a meaningful reminder of the Jewish value of hakarat hatov, recognizing the good. In each situation, we are taught that gratitude flows from finding and celebrating the good, even as we may strive to remedy the bad. This Thanksgiving, how might we recognize the good that enriches us, our families, our community, and our country, even as we strive to right those wrongs that afflict them?
—Rabbi Josh Knobel