Thanksgiving – A Celebration That We Can All Share and Lessons for us all to Learn

What follows is a brief reflection I shared at our recently held community-wide Interfaith Thanksgiving Celebration. This was a gathering of celebration, exactly the type I long for when we gather for something somber as we did several weeks ago. I have been asked by several people if I would share this on my blog so here it is. The celebration was held at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Glenside, Pennsylvania and coordinated by its wonderful Pastor, Emily Richards. Jews, Muslims, Christians, and adherents of other religious traditions all gathered together as people of faith and as Americans.

About three and a half weeks ago, we had a huge community gathering at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel where people of all faiths came together to support the Jewish community as we mourned the loss of members of our larger faith community in a violent incident in Pittsburgh. I remember feeling so thankful for this outpouring of love, concern and support from my friends in faith, all faiths. I wrote in my blog that week about how I so appreciate how we help each other through challenges and that I would hope we could join hands and hearts in celebration as well. And here we are doing just that. For that I am thankful.

I am thankful to be living in this country and freely practicing my faith as we all, in this beautiful sanctuary of faith, are doing. We would like to think that this freedom is fundamental to our identity as Americans; that we, as the children of Israel so long ago in the text that Rabbi Berkowitz just read, came to our covenanted union with certain understandings of our practices and our responsibilities to be contributing and appropriate members of the society that we would build together. As we all know, while this idealized notion feels good, this is not the entire story. In our lives today, we are constantly reminded of the vulnerability of that freedom to be, that we all cherish and often take for granted, as we remember and share our concern for those whose freedom to be is being threatened.

We in the Jewish community are taught to remember Amalek and to never forget that this nation took advantage of our most vulnerable members. One of the more controversial teachings, for some, is the clear injunction to destroy Amalek for doing so, for not acknowledging strength or integrity, but for fighting those least able to defend ourselves. Many of our Jewish commentators explain that we are to not only destroy the Amalek that takes advantage of others outside of ourselves, but inside of ourselves as well. We as Israelites came to the land promised to us long ago as tenders of the soil, protectors of the land and each other, and as those required to take care of and welcome all those who come to us as strangers, but stay as members of our family, so to speak. This was the idea of the Native Americans so long ago when they too welcomed the other and shared the land and their resources with them. It is this lesson of caring for all those around us and not taking advantage of vulnerabilities that we are to remember and to practice when we are the best we can be. Doing so is fundamental to keeping the commandments God gave to us then, and to our covenant with each other, and what it asks from us now.

We cannot acknowledge and be thankful for our blessings without showing concern for those for whom these very basic elements of a life well lived may be denied or threatened. As there was affliction long ago in the reading from Deuteronomy, we are witnessing the same in our world today. For those of us who are able to be thankful for the blessings bestowed upon us, we hope that we are worthy and that we are properly sharing and caring with our resources as the commanded action of doing Tzedakah asks of us. Many experts tell us that there should not be hunger in our world today, we have technology to clean water and provide healthy environments for so many who do not have these most basic necessities, and with responsible choices, we can use our many financial and material resources to better the lives of so many. All of our religious traditions and our foundational texts tell us to do just this and chastise us when we don’t.

Yes, I am thankful for this assemblage. I am thankful that I can practice the faith in which I believe. I am thankful that we, people of different faiths can come together to celebrate what we share and recognize fully and respect where we differ. And I am thankful for the many blessings God, in Infinite Compassion, has bestowed upon us. Let us behave responsibly with these blessings and the quality of life they enable. My prayer is that for all of us who have come together in fellowship and as people of faith reach out to those who cannot be here and gently remind all of us of our humanity, our need for each other, and how we are indeed to show our gratitude by extending our hand to those around us. Then, with God’s help, we will show ourselves to merit these blessings for which we are so thankful.

And now for a footnote: This past weekend, our entire family gathered together and as is usual for us, we talked about important and relevant issues in our lives. It is always such a treat for me to gather with all of our children, their partners in life and the next generation, our eldest daughter’s four adorable girls. I am always touched by how they each continue to exude the values we all hold so dear in their professional as well as personal lives. Each of them does continue to extend their hand to others, to care about all people and to truly try to make this world a better place. For this too, I am eternally and boundlessly thankful. When people often worry about our next generation, look carefully. There are indeed many wonderful things that are happening due to the efforts of these younger adults who are caring more, doing so much and addressing many of our challenges. I pray that they will continue to do so for many years to come as well as show those who have forgotten how to work together with all people, both those similar to and those different from them, exactly how to do so and the benefit that accrues from such cooperation and sharing.

Here we are, acts threatening our humanity continue, and now what?

In the past few weeks, there have been letter bombs, several mass murders, individual acts of violence and hatred also ending lives that should still be lived, and of course the 24/7 barrage of words of vengeance and hatred that make me think we should all just stop talking. It really does get to be too much. And yet…. Such beautiful moments of resilience and hope.

This past Sunday twenty-two people came together across lines of faith – Jews, various iterations of Christians, Muslims, and wonderful resources in our larger community to have a meaningful and substantive discussion on Immigration – the challenges that we know are acting as significant and difficult roadblocks and the voices of our respective faiths, telling us to make the “other” one of us, because we are all created in the image of God. These gatherings always bolster me and give me cause for hope that the hard work many of us are engaged in is with purpose and may actually achieve something meaningful. Representatives from HIAS, Peace Islands Institute, Cabrini University, and so many of our faith communities shared stories including our own past with members of our families coming to the USA for a better life, with few prospects and from countries that were less than desirable. Our gratitude that our relatives not so long ago took this chance and the United States responded affirmatively was not lost in that room. Then we had to interface that with real stories of today and people who are being threatened given the climate in this country – people who are making our country a better place through their hard work, foundational values and important legacies. As one of the people with whom I have ongoing contact said some time ago when we were discussing the present dilemma and I tried to gently remind that person that we ourselves were immigrants, “That was fifty or more years go and that was different.” No, I would comment, in our conversation, it is not different. In fact, consider that if the present climate was operative when YOUR family came to this country, would they have been let in? What is different – simply that once again to forget history is to repeat its mistakes, and there are now way too many people who have forgotten their past and refuse to use it to acknowledge our obligation to give others a future, as those who came before us did for us.

In one of my shul (synagogue) communities of which I am part, both of the past weeks were important ones of reflection, consideration of our present reality and a shared validation of what is truly important in our lives – with so many people of different faiths supporting us with their presence and expression of solidarity on Show Up For Shabbat, a report from one of our community’s Rabbis on his experience as a chaplain with the Red Cross in Pittsburgh to help guide that community through its crisis, a moving talk from the heart from one of our State Senators and our wonderful Rabbi who provided just the right healing community feeling we all needed. The bringing together of prayer, lessons of Torah and looking at our world with all of its flaws and finding hope in each other’s caring solidarity was another example of the best of who we can and should be. Knowing that this was the case in so many of our houses and communities of faith bolsters my spirit and encourages my soul.

Now, I am in the midst of working with a wonderful group of Christian, Muslim and Jewish clergy in planning a community wide Interfaith Thanksgiving Celebration. We will all come together as Americans who are free to practice the religions of our choice, a fundamental right guaranteed to us all, along with others that at present are being threatened. As Thanksgiving approaches with all of its attendant complexities and reframed meanings, the notion that we stop yet again and be thankful for our lives and many blessings seems to be something worth sharing and observing with other American communities of faith. It is my hope that as many people will make the point of showing up for these celebrations that will occur in many communities as they did a few weeks ago. It is critically important that we come together to celebrate to the same degree that we come together to mourn and support each other when needed.

Finally, this coming weekend I will be with one of my most cherished communities, a group of Orthodox Jewish parents of LGBT children. We will come together for prayer, community and sharing our stories with each other, while celebrating our children and their accomplishments and their lives. Once a year, we all gather while supporting each other in navigating the more religiously pitched communities in our lives and loving our children and advocating for them. I look forward to this gathering which is in its sixth year and am so aware of how much has changed in the past few years with more and more shuls/synagogues and schools and other institutions welcoming our LGBT children and other family members and friends.

Yes, there is much to celebrate and be thankful for in our lives. That being said, we cannot take these things for granted. We must always be aware of the need to continue to cherish what is important and to advocate for what is needed. It is when we stop looking to the sides and over our shoulder, insuring that everyone is safe, included and valued, that we as a society are most threatened. This Thanksgiving let us celebrate our many blessings and as we each approach our different winter celebrations, we should remember to honor each other’s narrative and consider what we can all learn from and with each other.