While taking a moment to catch my breath after the end of the Jewish holiday season, I pondered what to write about in my article for the Migdalor.  Like any reasonable man, I considered my options and possibilities and did what any man on wife #2 would do.  I asked Judy for her advice.  And to my not great surprise she offered several solid ideas.  Clearly I’ve married way above my pay grade.

Heading into November, in our Jewish-American world, we straddle many things and balance several priorities.  For me, when I think about November, I go immediately to our American observance of Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is our ecumenical American holiday of gratitude.  While we all know that first Thanksgiving over 400 years ago was a Christian observance, it must be noted the ideal of gratitude is universal.  It is a theme I can share in my interfaith work with both our Christian neighbors and Muslim cousins.  With that in mind, allow me to share with you a few things I am grateful for.

First and foremost, all the חתופים-hostages are finally home!  And the bloodshed has ceased.  Something we hoped for, dreamed about and prayed for, has happened.  Each Shabbat, we paused our service and recited the prayer for those held hostage, to be freed.  And during the Sukkot holiday, the time of our happiness, we received the news of an agreement.  I suspect that besides Judy and myself, many of our community stayed up late to see our brothers reunited with their families.  In my house, we watched CNN and on Judy’s iPad we had the Hebrew media on and yes, I can share we cried at seeing the hostages becoming free and reunited with their families.  I am grateful to have seen this last group come into the light of freedom and safety.   Sadly, I will mourn those who will never come home.  May this be the season and time that war and bloodshed cease forever in the land of Israel.  May no mother in Tel Aviv nor in Gaza City, have to fear for her children’s safety due to war and strife.

I am so delighted and grateful to have observed and celebrated my first High Holidays with the CAH community.  There is an old expression I’ll paraphrase, “Success has many parents, but failure is an orphan”.  I can safely say our services had many playing an important role as parents in the success of our High Holiday and Sukkot observances.  My thanks to our President Brenda Rich, our Ritual VP Neal Abramson and the entire Ritual Committee for all your efforts.  To those who read torah, who chanted a haftorah or sounded the shofar, my thanks and my gratitude to you all. A thanks and shout out to Mark Rich, who made sure all the ’tech’ aspects ran smoothy and without any fuss.  And special thanks to Rabbi Stuart Light for sharing the bima with me and besides his role in leading worship, his teachings and our learning with him were delightful.  The Yom Kippur learning lead and facilitated by Fran Lande was wonderful.  My thanks to Esther Taxon for being open to whatever task needed to be done on the bima.  I am extremely grateful for our Shimini Atseret/Shimchat Torah observance with special guest clergy Hazzan Mike Stein.  Given how much I enjoy eating, I’d be remiss without thanking Jerry and honestly I don’t know how many others who prepared our meals and cleaned up afterwards.  Thanks and Thanks you all.

Something I have come to enjoy alot and am very grateful for, is after worship, we sit together as a community and share a meal, enjoy something sweet and exchange ideas, thoughts and insights.  The classic Hebrew song, Henai Mah Tov, has the lyric, “how good it is to be sitting here all together”…  How good it is for us to sit together and engage in  learning about each other, sharing the news of the day and I believe I’ve even heard across the tables, words of Torah being shared and discussed.

Speaking of those post-service meals, if you have spent any time with me at all, you know I have a sweet-tooth as big as the great outdoors.  I am grateful on the Thanksgiving holiday for all the foods.  But I am seriously grateful and delight in dessert.  If you ask me which I like best, Pumpkin Pie, Pecan Pie, Apple pie, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate brownies, fruit cake or pudding, my answer will be “yes please”.  In all seriousness my friends, that image of a table overflowing with food, with too many choices and leftovers to fuel meals for the next week, that is a blessing.  That we can eat our fill and more, of turkey, stuffing, potatoes, sweet potatoes, assorted veggies and breads is a gift, a blessing and honestly, truly a ‘first world problem”.

I am grateful for the gift of family.  In my blended and extended family, it’s always interesting and never dull.  I continue to be intrigued and surprised by my ever growing extended family.  I think by now, most everyone knows that Rabbi Lisa Hochberg-Miller of TBT, is my cousin by marriage.  It was a moment of both awe and amazement at Rosh Hashanah dinner at my youngest stepson’s home, looking at the other guests and realizing, we are all part of a wonderful extended family.  Family is a challenge, family can be a chore, family is definitely an obligation and certainly family is love.  I am grateful for my extended family’s quirks, humanity and love.

Finally, in the theme of the season, I am grateful for the reality that Americans are a truly generous people.  As a group, we give freely and generously to worthy causes.  I was delighted to see the bags and bags of food donations we collected for those in need in our community.  For all those who took part, I thank you personally.

My friends, in this season of Thanksgiving, let us all take a moment to consider what we have in our lives to be grateful for.  May we all take that moment and be generous in giving aid to those in our communities in need.

Wishing everyone a joyful and meaningful American Thanksgiving observance,

Rabbi Ron