blogs/brentspodek

This Thanksgiving, we might not personally have everything that we want.

Perhaps in our personal lives, we are missing important things we desperately want. Perhaps on a national level, we painfully aware of how this nation has fallen short of its values of liberty and justice for all. 

It can tempting to be overwhelmed, to despair, to give up. Yet we who believe in the Torah's call for justice can't afford to be overwhelmed. We cannot abandon the self-evident truths, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Now, more than ever, it's important to maintain the spiritual practice of being thankful for the blessings we do have, even if we are reading this from inside a hospital, even if we are reading this inside a prison. Cultivating a posture of thankfulness is a practice and a choice. 

To tend to our souls, we give thanks; to tend to our values, we fight.

In a beautiful Thanksgiving prayer, Rabbi Naomi Levy offers thanks for the laughter of the children, for life breath, for the abundance of food, for the ones who prepared the feast and for much more. 

And if you are ready to go deeper, I invite you begin each day with words of gratitude, immediately upon awakening. I tend to my soul, in part, by beginning every day saying: I am thankful before You, Source of all life, for restoring my soul to me with compassion. You are faithful beyond measure. (????? ????? ???????????, ???????? ??? ????????, ???????????????? ???? ?????????? ??????????, ?????? ????????????)

I know also that just as wood is bent by the constant, gentle application of pressure, and stone is cut by the constant, gentle application of water, so too our hearts are shaped by the constant, gentle application of gratitude. I begin my day that way because I know that if left to its own devices, my soul will find plenty to complain about - my knees are aching, it looks like it's going to rain, the country is going to collapse. I choose to begin my day with gratitude. 

However, I know well that gratitude alone will not protect the widow, the orphan, the stranger. Sometimes we need to resist, to struggle and to fight. And when we fight, we fight to win, not to process fear. In the words of Stosh Cotler, the CEO of Bend the Arc, we "must be clear-eyed and serious about the danger, and we must challenge ourselves to rise to this moment...  The future is uncertain, the stakes are high, and we must be willing to be courageous because the consequences of our decisions will be great."

This is the season to cultivate gratitude for what we have, and to build the resources, skills and abilities to fight for what we need.