Post by Rabbi Neil on Nov 29, 2019 19:15:36 GMT
Every day is Thanksgiving. No, that doesn’t mean that you never have to go back to work, and it doesn’t mean that you have to spend every single day with friends and family eating more than is healthy for one person to eat. What it means is that, in Judaism, we’re meant to spend our lives in thanks. If prayer is, as Abraham Joshua Heschel suggests, our response to the inconceivable surprise of being, then much of that prayer practice is naturally going to be spent giving thanks. Indeed, the tradition that we recite one hundred blessings a day is predicated on the idea that the Jew traditionally recites three prayers services a day and also prays before and after eating. After that, reaching one hundred blessings really isn’t going to be much of a challenge.
For many Reform Jews today, though, that number isn’t likely to be reached. Indeed, setting a target of blessings a day is most likely to be ignored because it merely provides pressure to reach a target. “Only 97 blessings today? Tsk tsk!” The idea isn’t to reach a number but to create a lifestyle and a corresponding mindset, which is to live in thanks. I recently read one person’s account of how they left Orthodoxy, and how their previous ritual observance had been motivated by guilt and nothing more. But that is not Judaism. That is spiritual accounting. Reform Judaism tends to abhor such mindless observance of ritual. But it tends not to replace it with much that is meaningful through a traditional lens.
There is much in our tradition, though, that is very exciting and creative. Most Reform Jews don’t even know of a blessing after smelling flowers – borei isvot b’samim – thanking God for creating fragrant plants. They may not know of the blessing borei minei m’zonot – thanking God for cakes and pastries. That’s a real blessing. A blessing on seeing the wonders of nature – oseh ma’aseh v’reishit – thanking God who performs the work of creation – seems particularly appropriate in Santa Fe with our extraordinary skies and wonderful environment. There’s a blessing on seeing the sea…. Actually, don’t worry about that one! There’s a whole plethora of blessings for natural events, such as seeing a rainbow, hearing thunder, and so on, that Reform Jews often don’t know, or didn’t even know existed.
Apart from that, there is also an entire series of blessings relating to people. M’shaneh habriyot is a blessing on seeing people of varied appearance, although to be fair it was traditionally a blessing upon seeing extremely tall and extremely short people. Shenatan mikvodo l’vasar vadam, thanking God who has given of God’s glory to flesh and blood, is a blessing one recites on seeing kings and rulers. That’s an extraordinary theological statement. There’s a blessing not just for secular rulers, but on seeing someone with great religious knowledge and wisdom – shehalaq meichochmato lirei’av – thanking God who has given a share of God’s wisdom to those in awe of God. There’s even a blessing on seeing people with great secular learning – shenatan meichochmato l’vasar vadam¬ – a combination of the previous two blessings.
More blessings fall under the group of events. Some event blessings many people know, such as putting up a mezuzah, or shehecheyanu, the blessing we recite on new events. More challenging is the blessing on hearing bad news, dayan ha’emet, thanking God as the Judge of truth. Conversely, there’s a blessing on hearing good news – hatov v’hameitiv, thanking God who is good and who does good. On seeing a place where a wonderful thing has happened to you, it is traditional to say she’asah li nes bamaqom hazeh, thanking God who created a miracle for me in this place.
So many blessings! So many ways of traditionally expressing thanks! And yet so few Reform Jews know these blessings. Why might that be? Perhaps Reform Judaism’s focus on Tikkun Olam, on repairing the world, has sidelined spirituality somewhat. The tachlis, the practical, has taken over the spiritual, which is almost seen as antiquated or embarrassing. I think this is a real shame. I think it diminishes our Judaism. We’ve become so preoccupied with politically expedient acts that we’ve almost forgotten the need l’hitpalel, to pray, to reflect, to give thanks, to express our hopes, fears and needs. Every year that passes I become more convinced of how important that is in our lives. I find myself looking at the n’kavim n’kavim prayer in the morning liturgy, which thanks God for our vessels and openings, and remarks on the fact that if one of them were wrongly opened or wrongly closed it would be impossible to stand before God. That’s back to Heschel inconceivable surprise of being. The human body is a truly extraordinary thing. The fact that it tends to work day after day with only minimal assistance from modern medicine is, or should be, mind-blowing. The fact that we know how to keep it going is more mind-blowing still.
The person I mentioned earlier who left Orthodoxy also described halakhah as the pillar of Judaism. I don’t agree at all, although I understand how as an Orthodox Jew he used to believe that. To me, one of the central pillars of Judaism is living in wonder, which naturally leads to expressions of thanks, or… thanksgiving. That means living in prayer, or in a prayerful mindset. Thanksgiving is an opportunity to reflect on the fact that we needn’t wait for one day a year to express thanks, but can do so at any moment during our day. We don’t need to have our tradition mandate how often we say blessings, but we can use that aspiration as guidance for a different way of being.
May we, then, live in thanks. May we be thankful for the wonders of our lives, of our bodies, of the riches that surround us, of the plentiful opportunities that spread before us, indeed, may we simply be thankful for the wonder of being alive. And let us say, Amen.
For many Reform Jews today, though, that number isn’t likely to be reached. Indeed, setting a target of blessings a day is most likely to be ignored because it merely provides pressure to reach a target. “Only 97 blessings today? Tsk tsk!” The idea isn’t to reach a number but to create a lifestyle and a corresponding mindset, which is to live in thanks. I recently read one person’s account of how they left Orthodoxy, and how their previous ritual observance had been motivated by guilt and nothing more. But that is not Judaism. That is spiritual accounting. Reform Judaism tends to abhor such mindless observance of ritual. But it tends not to replace it with much that is meaningful through a traditional lens.
There is much in our tradition, though, that is very exciting and creative. Most Reform Jews don’t even know of a blessing after smelling flowers – borei isvot b’samim – thanking God for creating fragrant plants. They may not know of the blessing borei minei m’zonot – thanking God for cakes and pastries. That’s a real blessing. A blessing on seeing the wonders of nature – oseh ma’aseh v’reishit – thanking God who performs the work of creation – seems particularly appropriate in Santa Fe with our extraordinary skies and wonderful environment. There’s a blessing on seeing the sea…. Actually, don’t worry about that one! There’s a whole plethora of blessings for natural events, such as seeing a rainbow, hearing thunder, and so on, that Reform Jews often don’t know, or didn’t even know existed.
Apart from that, there is also an entire series of blessings relating to people. M’shaneh habriyot is a blessing on seeing people of varied appearance, although to be fair it was traditionally a blessing upon seeing extremely tall and extremely short people. Shenatan mikvodo l’vasar vadam, thanking God who has given of God’s glory to flesh and blood, is a blessing one recites on seeing kings and rulers. That’s an extraordinary theological statement. There’s a blessing not just for secular rulers, but on seeing someone with great religious knowledge and wisdom – shehalaq meichochmato lirei’av – thanking God who has given a share of God’s wisdom to those in awe of God. There’s even a blessing on seeing people with great secular learning – shenatan meichochmato l’vasar vadam¬ – a combination of the previous two blessings.
More blessings fall under the group of events. Some event blessings many people know, such as putting up a mezuzah, or shehecheyanu, the blessing we recite on new events. More challenging is the blessing on hearing bad news, dayan ha’emet, thanking God as the Judge of truth. Conversely, there’s a blessing on hearing good news – hatov v’hameitiv, thanking God who is good and who does good. On seeing a place where a wonderful thing has happened to you, it is traditional to say she’asah li nes bamaqom hazeh, thanking God who created a miracle for me in this place.
So many blessings! So many ways of traditionally expressing thanks! And yet so few Reform Jews know these blessings. Why might that be? Perhaps Reform Judaism’s focus on Tikkun Olam, on repairing the world, has sidelined spirituality somewhat. The tachlis, the practical, has taken over the spiritual, which is almost seen as antiquated or embarrassing. I think this is a real shame. I think it diminishes our Judaism. We’ve become so preoccupied with politically expedient acts that we’ve almost forgotten the need l’hitpalel, to pray, to reflect, to give thanks, to express our hopes, fears and needs. Every year that passes I become more convinced of how important that is in our lives. I find myself looking at the n’kavim n’kavim prayer in the morning liturgy, which thanks God for our vessels and openings, and remarks on the fact that if one of them were wrongly opened or wrongly closed it would be impossible to stand before God. That’s back to Heschel inconceivable surprise of being. The human body is a truly extraordinary thing. The fact that it tends to work day after day with only minimal assistance from modern medicine is, or should be, mind-blowing. The fact that we know how to keep it going is more mind-blowing still.
The person I mentioned earlier who left Orthodoxy also described halakhah as the pillar of Judaism. I don’t agree at all, although I understand how as an Orthodox Jew he used to believe that. To me, one of the central pillars of Judaism is living in wonder, which naturally leads to expressions of thanks, or… thanksgiving. That means living in prayer, or in a prayerful mindset. Thanksgiving is an opportunity to reflect on the fact that we needn’t wait for one day a year to express thanks, but can do so at any moment during our day. We don’t need to have our tradition mandate how often we say blessings, but we can use that aspiration as guidance for a different way of being.
May we, then, live in thanks. May we be thankful for the wonders of our lives, of our bodies, of the riches that surround us, of the plentiful opportunities that spread before us, indeed, may we simply be thankful for the wonder of being alive. And let us say, Amen.