Tomorrow when we sit down to our Thanksgiving meals, many of us will miss the usual gathering with extended family and friends. We’ll Zoom and call, and think about how we’ll look back on this unprecedented time years from now.
With so many things not as they should be, we are grateful for what we do have. If we are among those fortunate enough to have our good health and our families, whether they are with us or apart, we are grateful. We’re grateful for the news of effective vaccines on the horizon. With ICUs filling up around the country, we’re grateful to breathe an easy breath when tragically so many can’t. A more modest gathering is a small sacrifice when there are families with permanently empty chairs at their tables, and others struggling emotionally or financially. That’s what this pandemic has taught us. There are reasons to be grateful.
Even pre-pandemic, Thanksgiving and its message of gratitude have always felt right to us, not just as Americans but also as Jews.
In a recent message, I wrote about Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, who was the closest I ever came to having a “Rebbe.” Reading his weekly commentary on the Torah was a central part of my Shabbat, and I’ve read and reread all of his many books over the years. I had the honor of interviewing Rabbi Sacks in September about his last book, Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times. Shortly after the interview, Rabbi Sacks publicly revealed he was battling cancer, and he passed away on November 7.
Rabbi Sacks wrote more than once about the Jewish take on gratitude in prayer and practice, pointing out, like many others, that the first prayer we’re instructed to say when we wake up is “I give thanks,” Modeh Ani. Rabbi Sacks further teaches that the word “Yehudi,” or Jew, comes from the same root as the word “Modeh.” His insight: the concept of gratitude is quite literally embedded in who we are.
In Morality, Rabbi Sacks studies gratitude through the lens of history, examining the early roots of Thanksgiving. There have been Thanksgiving celebrations in America since the earliest settlers in the 1620s. But it was only when President Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation — during the height of the Civil War in 1863 — that a specific day was set aside for the entire nation to mark the holiday.
Rabbi Sacks observes how, remarkably, during a time that bitterly divided a nation, Lincoln’s proclamation urged people on both sides to take this day to thank God. Even in the midst of a raging war, the president reached out to the entire nation, believing there were still blessings for which all could be grateful. Equally noteworthy, Lincoln did not use his proclamation to disparage the south, but rather to encourage everyone to find the strength to engage in self-criticism, atonement, and humility.
What an extraordinary Thanksgiving message for our times.
Lincoln’s words surely moved Rabbi Sacks because they mirrored his own worldview. Both the concepts that we should find a way to understand the “other side” and live with a sense of gratitude are two threads woven throughout Rabbi Sacks’ writings. In particular, Rabbi Sacks used all the tools in his arsenal — prodigious knowledge of Torah, philosophy, history, and ethics Jewish and secular — to argue in new and compelling ways that rising above our differences was a moral necessity. And not only was it necessary, Rabbi Sacks firmly believed it was within our reach. That idea, which lives on in his writings, is among his most enduring legacies.
And so as we usher in Thanksgiving, I express gratitude this year for many blessings, including the life and teachings of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. May his teachings inspire our world for generations to come.
A healthy and happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones