What might this week’s parashah, Vayetze, have to do with Thanksgiving? Perhaps everything—beginning with Jacob’s startled exclamation upon awakening from his dream: “Surely God is in this place—and I did not know it.” But how?
The rabbis teach (Bereishit Rabbah 69:7) that Jacob’s words reveal not simply surprise, but hakarat ha-tov, the spiritual discipline of recognizing goodness. Jacob becomes aware—perhaps for the first time—that blessing does not begin only in moments of triumph, but in the very places of fear, uncertainty, and transition. His thankfulness emerges not despite his tribulations, but through them. This becomes the ongoing saga of his life: hardship intertwined with insight, struggle braided with blessing. The blessings of his past—and those to come—become for Jacob a perpetual invitation to gratitude.
There is a similar intent with the haftarah reading where the prophet Hosea talks about Israel being made whole once again (Hosea 14:4-7). In their context we can say that those verses describe God’s restorative power—healing what is broken, renewing what is withered, and offering Israel a chance to flourish again. Another chance is always a reason to be thankful.
As we enter this season of giving thanks, our minds naturally turn toward todah, toward noticing the blessings that surround us and acknowledging the good that sustains us. In this light, after Jacob’s dream of the ladder at Bethel when be says, "Surely God is in this place and I did not know it," it is one of the most honest and vulnerable lines in all of Torah, because it admits something that is just as relevant today, we often discover holiness only in hindsight. Yet his words also remind us that holiness so often hides in plain sight. The Sefat Emet teaches that God’s presence is found everywhere, but it is human awareness—da’at—that flickers on and off. Much like Jacob, we often perceive God’s presence only in retrospect. Thanksgiving, in many ways, is a ritual of hindsight: recognizing the moments we rushed past, the gifts we overlooked, the goodness we did not know at the time.
To help us with that sense of awareness each day upon waking we say a prayer of gratitude, Modeh Ani (modah for the ladies) that says, “I give thanks to You living and everlasting God for You have restored my soul with mercy. Great is Your faithfulness.” While I think naturally this becomes more sobering as you get older, it's good for even a young person studying for their B’nai Mitzvah, or about to “walk” to receive a graduate degree, that tomorrow is never guaranteed and we must be thankful for today because of all the blessings that are a part of it. How often do we hurry through our days without recognizing the quiet blessings that hold us up—family, friends, community, the small kindnesses that punctuate our routines, the breath that animates us, the love that steadies us? The “noise” of the world around us cannot be given the power and/or platform to take from us the gratitude that we have for what we have been given.
Thanksgiving becomes our annual reminder of Jacob’s revelation—“God (or whatever good you want to look too) is in this place, and I did not know it.” It is an invitation to slow down, look again, and recognize what may have been hidden in the rush of life. And as we turn toward the light of Hanukkah, this teaching feels even more fitting: miracles noticed only after the oil has already begun to burn.
May this Shabbat be a part of a long weekend of Thanksgiving that can deepen our awareness, soften our hearts, and help us say with sincerity: I am so thankful today for what I might have missed yesterday.
Shabbat Shalom and Happy Thanksgiving,
Rabbi Adam Ruditsky
No comments:
Post a Comment