Happy Thanksgiving! This week’s Daily Kavanot have focused upon Jewish themes of gratitude that may help inform the contemporary Thanksgiving celebration.
In an old Jewish tale, a farmer, weary of a home he deems too small for his family, turns to his rabbi, who instructs him to solve his lack of space by bringing his chickens indoors. After the farmer does as instructed, even more exasperated than when he began, he returns to the rabbi, who then instructs him to bring his sheep indoors. This process is repeated over and over again until, eventually, all the farmer’s livestock lives inside the house. That’s when the rabbi tells the farmer to begin moving his livestock outdoors, one by one, until the farmer, with only his family inside his home, breathes a sigh of relief and thanks the rabbi for her help.
This classic Jewish story instills the pursuit of gratitude with levity, and illustrates one of the principal problems inherent in cultivating gratitude. As corporeal creatures, we quickly grow accustomed to our blessings and want for more. How, then, can we possibly nurture an attitude of gratitude that leaves us feeling fulfilled, rather than lacking?
Like any skill—new or old—gratitude requires earnest practice to hone and maintain. And Thanksgiving represents a great opportunity to begin—or to begin again—the practice of gratitude. How might our Thanksgiving change, should we take a thoughtful moment to sincerely consider some of the blessings we so often forget before we enjoy our meal?
Most of us who have such benefits are accustomed to giving thanks for our food, as well as our friends and loved ones. What about the chairs and tables we dine upon? Or the dishes? Or the walls of our homes? Or the stove that cooked our food, or the heating units that keep us warm? Each of these simple comforts represents a marvel of human technological development, as well as a blessing that not all humans can enjoy. Enumerating them again and again, in word or in song, can help us transcend the very human tendency to dismiss the many blessings we may enjoy.
It won’t always be possible. There must be seasons of our lives when we are consumed by what we lack, having bid farewell to those greatest of blessings—our loved ones. But even grief may one day give way to gratitude, when we can again recall the blessings our loved ones bequeathed us.
Happy Thanksgiving.
—Rabbi Josh Knobel
Land Acknowledgement
Thanksgiving can be a wonderful opportunity to teach kids lessons about gratitude and to celebrate our good fortune. But, like so many of our holidays and narratives, it is complicated. As we prepare to sit and offer blessings for our gratitude and abundance, even in this year, we would also like to acknowledge that every family, across the country and continent, lives on somebody’s traditional lands.
Today, we invite you to honor the Chumash, Tongva, and Kizh tribes on whose ancestral lands Stephen Wise Temple and Wise School sit.
Their history, culture, and legacies are a part of our own story.
To learn more, visit Native Land.