Thanksgiving.
Giving Thanks.
Thanks be to Thee.
We are about to celebrate Thanksgiving Day, the quintessential American holiday. On it we gather with family, with friends, and with loved ones, for the sole purpose of being together and enjoying one another's company. And, of course, to eat. But the eating is secondary.
This is a holiday of expressing appreciation and we should never lose sight of the importance of this part. As we sit around the table we should be looking around at the bounty we have harvested. It is a harvest of food, and a harvest of material things, but mostly it is a harvest of beautiful people with wondrous souls. Each of us has planted a communal garden, our personal Edens, and Thanksgiving is the time that we reap that which we have planted and nurtured. Our lives are the market at which they are delivered. And we need to give thanks.
The idea of giving thanks is important on a national level, a community level, a family level, and a personal level. But to whom is thanks due? Certainly our hosts deserve thanks for opening their homes. Our friends and family deserve thanks for always being there for us. Our country, our government, and our forefathers, deserve thanks for creating and maintaining a nation that is, and has always been, a beacon to the rest of the world. We should be thanking the police officer, the firefighter, the soldier, the doctor, the farmer, the worker, and the entrepreneur. While the list my be endless, we should never lose sight of the fact that the One ultimately deserving of thanks is God, who created a world in which a country such as ours can exist. We should thank the Creator of all the wonders around us.
Psalm 107: 8-9 is a good starting point in giving thanks to the Holy One. Therein the Psalmist exclaims: "Let them give thanks to the LORD for God's unfailing love and His wondrous deeds for mankind, for God has satisfied the thirsty and filled the hungry with all good things."
The Talmud frames the need to thank in a slightly different way. In the Talmud Bavli, Brakhot 35b it says: "Anyone who enjoys anything from this world without a blessing, it is as if they have stolen from God and the community of Israel".
As we each sit around our tables this Thanksgiving, remember to thank each other, remember to appreciate each other, and remember to love each other. Click her for a beautiful Prayer for the Thanksgiving Feast written by Rabbi Naomi Levy.
For our part, this year, Sheri and I are thankful for many things. As always, we thank God for our daughter, Sammi. We give praise to God for our extended family and friends without whom our lives would be empty. We are grateful to all who have advised us; to all who have hugged us when we needed hugging, and to those who permitted us to hug them when they were in need. We thank God for our successes, but we also thank God for the lessons that we have learned from our failures.
We are increasingly grateful this year for the community we have found at the JCC of LBI. We are grateful for the work we have all done to grow our community and to nurture it over the last 4 years. We are grateful for each congregant, new and old. We are grateful to everyone in the office for always listening and helping. We are grateful for a board that has shared our vision of growing and strengthening the Jewish community in and around LBI. We are grateful for all that we will continue to do together.
We are extremely grateful that we will be here for at least the next 3 years to expand on what we, as a community, have begun. We are grateful to the community for opening its arms and hearts to us and we give thanks to God for bringing us to this moment.
May we continue to go M'Chayil L'Chayil, from strength to strength.
Hodu L'Adonai Ki Tov, Ki L'olam khasdo - Give thanks to God, for God is Good, God's love endures for ever.
Happy Thanksgiving and Shabbat Shalom - Rabbi Michael S. Jay
The Jewish Community Center of LBI 
THANKSGIVING AND FAMILY TIME
