I HOLIDAYS
How to avoid
an expensive
car accident.
Artwork from the Roanoke Times & World-News by Kevin Kreneck. Copyright o 1989, Kevin Kreneck.
Thanksgiving Challenge:
How We Use Leftovers
BERNARD S. RASKAS
Special to The Jewish News
T
hanksgiving is
basically a Jewish
holiday.
The first American
Thanksgiving was
celebrated by the Pilgrims in
1621. The Pilgrims con-
sidered themselves the
"New Israel" and fashioned
their community on the
Hebrew Bible. So it was
natural for them to find an
appropriate way to fulfill the
biblical verse, "When you
have gathered in the boun-
ties of the land, you shall
observe a festival of the
land" (Leviticus 23:29).
Indeed, the festival of
Sukkot is essentially an ex-
pression of thanksgiving for
the fall harvest. And the
book of Psalms is filled with
expressions of thanksgiving.
However, on the day after
Thanksgiving, as with most
holidays, we are left with a
letdown feeling. The climax
of the celebration is fre-
quently followed by the anti-
climax of the morning after.
On the day after we have, at
least for one of our meals,
leftover turkey.
Leftover turkey. Somehow
this phrase tells the whole
story. All that is left of yes-
terday's golden, sizzling,
stuffed bird are a bony car-
cass and a few scraps of
meat.
There is an important
message here. For life is
often leftover turkey. One
day the house is full of noise,
childish laughter, excite-
ment. The next day the
children, now grown men
Rabbi Bernard Raskas is
rabbi emeritus of the Temple of
Aaron in St. Paul, Minn., and
author of the trilogy, "Heart of
Wisdom."
and women, are off to col-
lege, careers, marriage, pur-
suits of their own, while we
are left with loneliness.
One day we are hearty and
hale, ready to lick the world,
and the next day, at the first
sign of illness, we feel a little
let down.
The real test of life is when
life strips us as bare as a
Thanksgiving bird. How do
we act on the day after? How
do we conduct ourselves and
what do we do with the lef-
tovers?
All of us are aware of the
mobiles and cradle gyms
that are put above a baby's
crib or carriage, but few of us
know how they originated. It
was invented over 40 years
ago by a paraplegic who, in
order to strengthen his
arms, was given a trapeze-
like affair on which to exer-
cise.
One day, staring at his ex-
ercise bar and wondering
what life had in store for
him, he suddenly thought of
an idea: an attractive ar-
rangement such as this for
infants. Out of this flash of
insight came a huge busi-
ness that is now an enor-
mous success. Here is a man
who knew the recipe for
making something out of a
scrap of life.
The oldest synagogue in
America is named Shearith
Israel, literally "the rem-
nant of Israel." It was so
called because the Jews who
came to New York with the
first Dutch immigrants
thought they were the only
Jews left.
Since then, the American
Jewish community has
grown from a handful of
refugees to almost 6 million
people. This is what can be
done with the remnants of a
people.
It's all too easy to buy the wrong car by accident. Don't let
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Don't buy the wrong car.
Test drive the right car, right now.
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Jewish Telegraphic Agency
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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