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Kabbalistic Secrets
tochn
• g joy in Life

Classes in Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz's latest book

Understanding the Tanya

A ot To Be
Thankful For

Shabbat Vayetzei: Genesis
28:10-32:3; Hosea 12:13-14:10.

Sundays:m:3o am

Thursdays: 8:3o pm
Tanya explores
and offers solutions
Rabbi Elimelech Silberberg
to the dilemmas of Lecturer
the human soul
—by probing
Sara & Morris Tuginan
the root causes
of its struggles Bais Chabad Torah Center
5595 W Maple Road, West Bloomfield
For more information: (248) 855-6170
or email us at BCTC77o@aol.com

I

n just a few weeks, we will all be
but often forget to be grateful for that
celebrating Thanksgiving (Nov
which is good.
22). A popular greeting among
In America especially, Jews have so
those of the younger generation for
much for which we should be grateful.
this holiday is, "Happy Turkey Day!"
Our ancestors, who possessed neither
In that greeting lies a very sad realiza- our material wealth nor our religious
tion about human psychology. Simply freedom, never forgot how powerful
put, many of us often forget how to be the simple act of gratitude could be.
grateful.
To be grateful is a skill. To remem-
This is not a new
ber to say "thank you" is a
problem — although
learned behavior, not an
it seems to be a bigger
automatic, instinctive reflex.
problem than it was in
Religiously speaking, it
the past. This problem
requires a conscious effort to
remember God.
is even found in the
Torah. In this week's por-
As Rabbi Abah Berman
tion, our father Jacob,
once commented, "Most
in a famous moment,
people believe that forgetting
is something that happens to
declares, "God was in
this place and I, I did not
you. Forgetting is something
know it."
Rabbi Daniel
you do:' If we can internal-
Wolpe
What a strange state-
ize the message — and the
Special to the
ment! Especially from
meaning — of the words,
Jewish News
such a righteous man!
"thank you," what a better
Did Jacob truly not know
world we could create!
that God is everywhere?
As we approach the
American holiday of Thanksgiving,
Of course not. Jacob knew that God
is everywhere, but like so many of us,
may we all make the attempt to con-
he was unable to feel God with him at
sciously remember that for all that we
that moment.
have; we must thank God and remem-
Very often we know on an intel-
ber that God is in our place, and we
lectual level that there is a God in
know it. F1
the universe, but we do not allow it
to affect us on an emotional level.
Because of that, we are unable to show Daniel Wolpe is rabbi of Congregation Beth
our gratitude for all that God has
Shalom in Oak Park.
given us.
The irony of this is that we have no
problem blaming God for things that
go wrong. Rabbis are very used to
Conversations
Take a moment and deliberate
having people who have suffered trag-
edy come into the shul and ask, "Why
some of the many things and
is God allowing this to happen to me?"
people you have to be thank-
Yet there is no recorded instance of
ful for. In what ways can your
express this gratitude besides
someone who has just won the lottery
running into the shul and screaming,
the words, "Thank you"?
"Why is God allowing this to happen
to me?"We blame God for the bad,

1328540

4

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1328570

November 15 2007

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