Ahhhhhhh. We can finally take a deep breath. The holidays are behind us. We came through them a little wiser, a little more introspective (and maybe a little heavier). In the rush of activity with the holidays, with all of the havoc it played on our schedules, we might not have had time to get into a routine, to stop for a moment and take a look around.

After the holidays we enter a fallow period on the Jewish calendar. Until late December (right around Christmas, actually) nothing of significance will happen on our calendar. For some of us, we look around after the holidays, after months of preparation and planning, after crafting or attending services and concentrating on our actions, that this time of the year can leave us feeling a little let down. September was dedicated to taking a full accounting of our lives and our actions. November was for going to services and beating our chests. Now we find ourselves with a void. We have made our resolutions, experienced spiritual highs, and now we are left with nothing.

I would like to propose something to those of us who feel a little post-holiday sadness. I would like to suggest that in preparation for an American High Holiday, we add a theme to November and December. If the theme for the last couple of months were introspection and teshuva, let’s make the next 8 weeks all about giving thanks. Yes, at the end of the month we celebrate a holiday dedicated to just that, but one day is hardly sufficient to say thank you for all of the blessings in our lives. Instead, let’s use this time to cultivate gratitude in our life.

It’s a simple yet difficult challenge, to retain our gratitude. Too often we get used to everything that we have. Our expectations choke off our gratitude and we begin to take for granted those aspects of our lives that are true blessings. We assume that everything from our families to our internet is going to work perfectly so that when it doesn’t, when any one of those aspects of our lives fails to run as we expect it to, we find ourselves angry and resentful.

Instead of that behavior, I would like to propose that we try to take a piece out of every day and set it aside for gratitude. Starting on November 1^st, take five minutes a day to list, either verbally or by writing it down, those things for which we are grateful. There will be days and weeks when our lists are almost identical, but it is precisely those things for which we can be grateful every day (our health, or ability to provide for ourselves) that we are most likely to take for granted and for whom gratitude must be cultivated and maintained.

If we start this practice and be thankful every day, then by the time Thanksgiving rolls around on November 28^th, the holiday will take on a very different meaning and significance. In fact, if you are hosting people for thanksgiving, you can encourage them to engage in a similar practice of gratitude, and then when you’re all gathered around your Thanksgiving table, you can share your lists with each other. By doing this, we will take a holiday that has become about football and turkey, and reclaim it by adding some value to it.

I hope you will join me this November and begin a practice of gratitude. Even if you aren’t able to practice it every day, or if you forget here and there, I hope you’ll try it. If you do, I would invite you to share with me your observations and results of your new practice.

Have a wonderful month, and may we all have many reasons to be grateful.

Rabbi Goldstein