Hamas War

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Thanksgiving?

Yes, it's Thanksgiving in America today. I guess that lots of jbloggers will be mentioning it. Hesh did. Here's the comment I wrote:


Besides all the "yay yay America" stuff, I think that a lot of frum Americans celebrate Thanksgiving for the pragmatic reason that it's a day one can travel to relatives for a meal, none of the halachik restrictions.
When I was growing up Thanksgiving was an occassion to crowd into a tiny one bedroom walkup in Brooklyn with all my mother's family. When I became religious I ate first at kosher venues. Once we moved to Israel, I never thought about celebrating it, since it wasn't Thanksgiving without all my cousins.

Actually, a couple of years ago, a neighbor decided to organize a big Thanksgiving meal. We all chipped in with parts of the menu. It was fun being together, but there was nothing very "Thank America" about it.

Think about the history:


A bunch of unhappy Europeans risk their lives to travel the high seas to an unknown place. They arrive sick and infect the local natives. The survivors are introduced to local foods and declare an annual Thanksgiving feast.

Could that be considered the true story in a nutshell? Those Europeans had no prior history with the land they conquered and settled. They were very different from those of us Jews (Zionists) who've made it from all over the world to our HolyLand. Even before the Zionists came, there were always Jews here. Many lived in places which are now judenrein (cleansed of Jews), like Gaza. As a people we never abandoned our Land. Only the Jewish People have a history of an independent country here.

I thank G-d for the opportunity to return to my Historic HomeLand. That's my Thanksgiving!

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