Tov L’hodot – It is Good to Celebrate Thanksgiving!

Given the Jewish origins of the quintessential American holiday of Thanksgiving (which is rooted in the Hebrew Bible and the Jewish holiday of Sukkot), it can be asked whether being thankful is more a religious or a secular value. 

Isn’t expressing gratitude as secular – and obvious – as can be?  After all, don’t we always – almost habitually – say ‘thank you’ to someone who holds the door for us, to the bus driver who waits for us as we run to catch the bus, to the waiter who brings us our food, to the physician who heals us, to the teacher who educates us, to the parent who raises us well and to the offspring who shows us the honor we deserve, to God who created us in His image?   And if we don’t, shouldn’t we?

And on a deeper level, which of these ‘thank you’s’ is secular and which is religious?   Can – or should – our ‘thank-you’s’ even lend themselves to a secular/religious distinction?

I suggest that the very act of ‘thanking’ permeates our secular lives, as it should; but the act of expressing gratitude – whether to man or to God – is driven by the religious imperative that it is the right thing to do. Indeed, it is a mitzvah (known as hakarat ha-tov) to have and express gratitude and appreciation to a deserving other.  It is also a mitvzah to do so to God:  Tov l’hodot LAdonai – it is good to give thanks to Adonai.   And it is in the very nomenclature of Jews – Y’hudim – to be thankful (hodah, a root of the word Y’hudi, means gratitude). 

While the holiday of Thanksgiving originated as the Pilgrims’ expression of gratitude to God, it has over the years – together with its attending secular customs and rituals – come to be seen as the American secular holiday of thanks.  Beyond this, I also see Thanksgiving as yet another potent reminder of the Jewish obligation to be thankful, grateful, appreciative – not solely or exclusively to God, but also to those individuals who have done good for each of us and who we must in turn shower directly with thanks.  Firmly rooted in its Jewish origins, Thanksgiving is clearly a religious reminder for us of the importance and righteousness of being grateful and saying ‘thank you,’ and provides yet another opportunity to mindfully direct our lives towards always fulfilling this mitzvah.

One more thing:  it is obviously easier to be thankful to God when all is going well, more challenging perhaps when not.  Our Jewish tradition teaches us that since Adonai is the creator of everything – good and bad alike, gratitude for the whole picture goes a long way in helping us to healthily absorb and deal simultaneously with the complexities, challenges, and blessings of life, enabling us to contextualize adversity within the larger landscape of the goodness of life.    Being thankful can make us happier, being grateful can make us stronger, being appreciative can make us wiser.

Tov l’hodot – it is indeed good to give thanks.

Rabbi Jonathan Pearl, Ph.D.