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Why Jews should celebrate Thanksgiving
This should be obvious. What's not to like about Thanksgiving? But for many Orthodox Jews it's not so obvious - a fact which speaks volumes to the thinking of many in that community. But what really makes this question interesting is that how one answers, regardless of one's religious affiliation, is the way in which the answer reveals how one thinks about Jews living in a largely non-Jewish culture. And ultimately, the same can be said for any religious or ethnic minority wrestling with its relationship to the larger American culture in which they live.
Every minority, including Jews, must ask if its identity is simply a function of difference from the larger culture, in which case the more popular something becomes in the larger culture, the more threatening it is. Or, can we imagine that things can be deeply embedded in other cultures as well and still be deeply and profoundly Jewish? Obviously, other religious and ethnic groups would substitute their group for Jewish, but the question remains the same. I am using 'Jewish' because that is the tradition I follow.
Thanksgiving offers an interesting example precisely because those who think that traditional Jews should not celebrate the holiday are the ones who appreciate more accurately the historical origins of the holiday. The arguments against observing Thanksgiving are all based on Leviticus 18:3, which reads, "You shall not copy the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelt, or of the land of Canaan to which I am taking you; nor shall you follow their laws." Some halakhic (Jewish legal) authorities rule that observing Thanksgiving violates this rule while others do not. The issue which divides them is generally whether or not they see Thanksgiving as religious.
Those who embrace Thanksgiving do so on the basis that it was "always a secular holiday", to which anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of history responds, "are you kidding?!" To whom were the Pilgrims thankful? The story is one of deep faith and providence; helping the Pilgrims persevere, build cooperative relationships with the native Indians, and create a new life in a new land. In fact, the idea of a secular Thanksgiving would have horrified those who first observed it.
Thanksgiving was, and remains for many including myself, a deeply if not particularly religious holiday. And therein lays its greatness. You don't need to belong to any particular religious group, or even believe in God, to acknowledge the powers greater than yourself which have carried you through the past year and helped build your life in positive ways.
Of course, the idea that something can be deeply religious without being unique to the religious group which created it is what so many people miss in their permissive attitude to Thanksgiving. And if the basis of such permission is the willful erasure of the past, then such permission does more harm than good. It tells people that Thanksgiving is okay because it was never "theirs" anyway. Sadly, that approach is diametrically opposed to the narrative upon which Thanksgiving is based -- people sharing the wisdom and practice of communities which are not their own.
The real question is why the options are either to ignore the past as a way to build a shared future (the case with those who embrace the holiday) or acknowledge the past and use that acknowledgment to divide us from our neighbors (the case of those who think that Thanksgiving isn't 'kosher'). But there is a third, healthier option.
We can acknowledge the deep religious roots of Thanksgiving, appreciate that many things which begin as religious migrate into the domain of the secular, and celebrate that in no country have more people from more diverse cultures ever gathered to celebrate both that which they share and the beauty of the many things which differentiate them from each other.
Thanksgiving is sacred to America and should be sacred to Jews who are among the primary beneficiaries of all that this nation has to offer. The reason Thanksgiving should be celebrated is not because we lie about its past, but because in no way is America for Jews what either Egypt or Canaan were. In fact, if there could be a promised land outside the land of Israel, this would be it.
America is not perfect, but the story of those who preceded us in coming here for their own religious freedom and opportunity is worthy of celebration. The story is both theirs and ours. And the fact that some stories and practices can be both at the same time is one of the things which make this holiday and nation so great.
Things are not Jewish because only Jews do them, and things should not be forbidden or threatening to Jews because non-Jews embrace them. If a holiday, practice, or tradition reflects our values, then it should be embraced. If not, not. Any other test reduces Jewishness, or any other religious-ethnic identity, to a game of difference for its own sake, which is as destructive as sameness for its own sake.
The issue should never be, what others do, but who do we want to be. Thanksgiving celebrates so much of who I hope we all want to be, that I can only say, "Pass the cranberries."
By
Brad Hirschfield
|
November 23, 2009; 11:16 AM ET
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Posted by: salero21 | November 27, 2009 1:08 PM
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Only those who share the values and optimism of the pilgrims who celebrated the first Thanksgiving should continue on celebrating it.
Posted by: abhab1 | November 24, 2009 8:44 AM
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Pass the cranberries along with some reality that the Conservative Jewish wing of Judaism has promulgated about Abraham, Noah, David and Joshua and be thankful that said rabbis of this wing have the courage to say it:
New York Times
ARTS & IDEAS/CULTURAL DESK | March 9, 2002
New Torah For Modern Minds
By MICHAEL MASSING (NYT) 1775 words
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20E1EFE35540C7A8CDDAA0894DA404482
Some excerpts:
"Abraham, the Jewish patriarch, probably never existed. Nor did Moses. The entire Exodus story as recounted in the Bible probably never occurred. The same is true of the tumbling of the walls of Jericho. And David, far from being the fearless king who built Jerusalem into a mighty capital, was more likely a provincial leader whose reputation was later magnified to provide a rallying point for a fledgling nation.
The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, which represents the 1.5 million Conservative Jews in the United States, has just issued a new Torah and commentary, the first for Conservatives in more than 60 years. Called ''Etz Hayim'' (''Tree of Life'' in Hebrew), it offers an interpretation that incorporates the latest findings from archaeology, philology, anthropology and the study of ancient cultures. To the editors who worked on the book, it represents one of the boldest efforts ever to introduce into the religious mainstream a view of the Bible as a human rather than divine document.
Equally striking for many readers will be the essay ''Biblical Archaeology,'' by Lee I. Levine, a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. ''There is no reference in Egyptian sources to Israel's sojourn in that country,'' he writes, ''and the evidence that does exist is negligible and indirect.'' The few indirect pieces of evidence, like the use of Egyptian names, he adds, ''are far from adequate to corroborate the historicity of the biblical account.''
The notion that the Bible is not literally true ''is more or less settled and understood among most Conservative rabbis,'' observed David Wolpe, a rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and a contributor to ''Etz Hayim.'' But some congregants, he said, ''may not like the stark airing of it.'' Last Passover, in a sermon to 2,200 congregants at his synagogue, Rabbi Wolpe frankly said that ''virtually every modern archaeologist'' agrees ''that the way the Bible describes the Exodus is not the way that it happened, if it happened at all.'' The rabbi offered what he called a ''litany of disillusion'' about the narrative, including contradictions, improbabilities, chronological lapses and the absence of corroborating evidence. In fact, he said, archaeologists digging in the Sinai have ''found no trace of the tribes of Israel -- not one shard of pottery.''
Posted by: ccnl1 | November 24, 2009 12:00 AM
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Not only Jews but everyone else who likes to eat a lot, or who enjoys a good calories charged Meal.
Eating like that is after all one of the Most American things to do for the Season. Then go after that on black Friday and start the spend and waste so characteristic and so part of the American way or the American dream.
It should be change to National day of Gluttony. That would explain to the rest of the World the well know and typical american Physiques. Ha this is tickling me to death.
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