BS"D
Note To All Posters: Only one post per person is permitted. Please make it a single, short question.
Chaim would love to answer all of your great questions but (unfortunately due to the number of questions and time constraints), if there is more than one short question, it will have to be moved to The Future Ask JTF Section. We apologize for this inconvenience and only wish that every person has a chance to be heard on the show.
Or course, comments not directed to Chaim will be moved into a separate thread under The General Discussion.
Chaim has stated that only one short question or comment per poster will be answered. Please remember that even with these rules, the program is over 2 hours long every week! If you want to post a longer question, unfortunately, Chaim may or may not be able to answer it in it's entirety. In this case, you may copy and paste parts of your question for the following week.
Thank you for your kindness and respect regarding these rules.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
BS"D
Happy Thanksgiving,
I know you don't celebrate Thanksgiving but you can pass my greetings along to The Righteous Gentiles.
As you can see by the date, this is a continuation of our discussion on the subject last year. So please don't comment on what you think about Jews celebrating American holidays in America in general because I already know your answer from last year.
Below is the NEW stuff that I want you to address.
I don't believe Thanksgiving is celebrating being in America but rather thanking G-d in general. Some people say it is to thank America but it is idolatry to thank someone other than in G-d if it done as a religious holiday like Thanksgiving and we are really thanking G-d no different than Sukkot. Some religious Jews in Israel still celebrate it even after making aliyah and some celebrate it on Friday Night rather than Thursday and combine it with Shabbat by having a turkey dinner for Friday Night kiddush. What is your opinion on Jews celebrating it IN Israel?
Was there ever a point in your life when you celebrated Thanksgiving? If so, how did you celebrate?
Thanksgiving was based on Sukkot and Hanukkah was based on Sukkot as well. So Thanksgiving is like the American Hanukkah, unlike Christmas which The Left tries to compare to Hanukkah. In 2013, Thanksgiving will even fall on Hanukkah so Jews can light the menorah before they have their Thanksgiving dinner.
Even though I do celebrate Thanksgiving, I don't believe it is a Jewish concept to say "I'm thankful for..." but rather to pray to G-d in Hebrew over the food at the table. This means saying the blessings over the food like you're always supposed to do and I personally recite part of Psalm 118 where it says "Hodu LaShem Ki Tov Ki Le'Olam Chasdo" which means "Thank G-d because He is good, for His kindness is everlasting.". Hodu is related to the Hebrew word Hodaya, which means Thanksgiving. I wrote about this in the Torah and Jewish Idea section in the Thanksgiving thread. After any meal is The Grace After Meals which includes the above Psalm in it as well. I'm the only one at my family's Thanksgiving dinner to insert any religious meaning to it. The rest of the people just eat the food without even a bracha.
Yacov Menashe Ben Rachamim,
Chief Administrator.
P.S. I'm posting this here because you asked me to correct your statement from last show. John Quincy Adams was not the fourth President. Madison came after Jefferson, and then Monroe. John Quincy Adams was the 6th and Andrew Jackson, the first evil President was the 7th.