CELEBRATING THANKSGIVING THE JEWISH WAY
As a child I was especially proud to be a fourth-generation American Jew. My father’s family was happy to be known as Jewish and American. I played a great game of baseball, read Sunday funnies and celebrated American and Jewish holidays.
My mother’s family was the complete opposite. They came from Europe with no appreciation for baseball or any American pastimes.
As a child I went to a small cheder, a Jewish school. My classmates were children of refugees.
One year I was introduced to a very strict, no-nonsense Jewish teacher - called a rebbe. This rebbe had very little patience for me, as I was very different from his European students. I was an American - a Yankee boy.
According to my rebbe, all American customs were taboo. They were considered “traif,” non-kosher. Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July were all jumbled into one big no-no.
He claimed that a Bible law forbids the Jewish nation to emulate the ways of other nations. He would quote the biblical verse Leviticus 18:3: “Neither shall ye walk in their statutes; do not follow their social customs.”
However, not all Jews think that way, as we shall see.
A week before Thanksgiving my father called my European grandparents and invited them to an 18 pound turkey dinner. On Thursday we would have a Thanksgiving meal.
However, the Monday before Thanksgiving the rebbe said “Thanksgiving is forbidden. It is a pagan holiday. No Jewish boy is allowed to eat turkey.”
I thought that if I ate turkey my teeth would fall out. I told my rebbe about the early Indians and the first Thanksgiving. I thought he would realize that Thanksgiving could be considered a mitzvah - good deed for both Jews and Gentiles. I told him about friendly Indians; how they saved the starving Puritans; that the Thanksgiving meal reminds us of the foods the Indians gave the settlers to survive through the rough winters in the new world. It’s a mitzvah to share and give thanks to G‑d.
“Yingele (sonny boy), I told you we don’t celebrate these holidays. It is forbidden to even listen to your bubbemeises (tall tales).”
That night I told my dad that I wouldn’t participate in a pagan holiday. “It’s against the Bible,” I said. He flew into a rage.
“You are an American, a fourth generation American. Be proud that you have a country that believes in G‑d. Thanksgiving is a Jewish idea.” He told my mother that if this continues he will take me out of that cheder, the Jewish school.
For the next few years my father bought a large turkey for Thanksgiving and we had two turkey meals: one on the American Thanksgiving and one on the following Shabbos. We now celebrated Thanksgiving on the Jewish holy day of Sabbath. My dad had a point. Thanksgiving, indeed, was a holiday that fit into the Jewish idea of thanking G‑d for His goodness.
I don’t remember if Thanksgiving became a kosher holiday or not, but having two turkey meals solved our family dilemma.
On Oct. 3, 1863 Abraham Lincoln signed the original Thanksgiving Proclamation. In it he stated, “We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown...
It has seemed to me fit and proper that G‑d should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”
I think if my Rebbe would have known of this wonderful proclamation, then he might have joined us in prayer at the Thanksgiving meal.