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THE JEWISH NEWS

NOVEMBER 20, 1987

A Toast
To Jewish Living

Thanksgiving: Mix Of Democracy, Jewish Idealism

Rabbi Irwin Groner is the
spiritual leader of Cong. Shaarey
Zedek and is the author of this
month's L'Chayim theme —
Thanksgiving. For each edition of
L'Chayim, a rabbi, a Jewish
educator or other notable from the
community will present an overview.

To many Americans,
Thanksgiving is anything but. It is
largely a day of feasting, football
and parades. It is a pleasant time
for escape from the normal routines
and daily pressures of work and
duty, but it could be a meaningful
experience for Jewish families to
celebrate their participation in
American life.
By examining the background
of this day, we can attain a deeper
awareness of both the greatness of
the American heritage and the glory
of Jewish idealism. Thanksgiving
Day is a festival that grew out of the
soil of American democracy. It was
nurtured by the religious spirit of
Judaism as interpreted by the
Puritan faith of the Pilgrims.
Thanksgiving is the only spiritual
day that was created by American
culture.
Of the 102 passengers who
landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620,
51 died within the first six months.
Stark words on a sarcophagus, in a
little village on a seacoast of
Massachusetts, tell the story: "This
monument marks the first burying
ground in Plymouth of the
passengers of the Mayflower." Here,
under cover of darkness, the fast
dwindling company laid their dead,
leveling the earth above them lest
the Indians should learn how many
were the graves. Not a single family
had been spared by death. And the
survivors lived on the fringe of
starvation in a hostile world.
These were the people who
gathered to give thanks to the
Almighty God for His blessings and
to express their humble dependence
upon His mercies for their
continuing life and for the freedom
which they cherished so deeply that

no hardship could quench it.
The Pilgrim fathers and mothers
regarded themselves as the heirs of
the Children of Israel. To them,
England was Egypt, the Atlantic
Ocean was the Red Sea. Its
crossing was escape from bondage.
The New World was the Promised
Land.
Their first harvest was a

quantitative terms. Therefore, even
for their meager harvest, they
ordained a festival of Thanksgiving
which was to be a counterpart of
the Jewish festival of Succot. How
many Americans realize that
"Thanksgiving" is really "Succot"
observed six weeks later?
This festival in later generations
was to be sacred to all Americans.

meager one, but they read the Bible

It was not to be celebrated on

in the original Hebrew and they

Sunday, for Sunday was the

accepted God's commandment to

Christian Sabbath. It was not to be

observe a festival of harvest as a
time of Thanksgiving. They did not
measure God's bounties in

celebrated on Saturday, because
Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath. It
was not celebrated on Friday,

because this was a day that would
be sacred to some Moslem
Americans. It was to be celebrated
on Thursday which, in its own way,
would become sacred to all
Americans — one group no more
than the other.
Thanksgiving, therefore,
became the first, and perhaps the
only religious festival created in
America. It should therefore be, and
is, observed by Americans as
Americans. There are many areas in
which we Jews seek to separate
ourselves from other Americans.
Continued on Page L-2