The Bolshevik Attacks On Thanksgiving

[Binyamin Yisrael]

The news media has been focusing on Barack Hussein Obama and the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address in which BHO omitted G-d. So of course he is not going to recognize the real meaning of Thanksgiving. I guess he'll ignore the 150th anniversary of making Thanksgiving a federal holiday.

Lincoln and the Civil War

Sketch by Alfred Waud of Thanksgiving in camp (of General Louis Blenker) during the U.S. Civil War in 1861.

Home To Thanksgiving, lithograph by Currier and Ives. (1867)

In the middle of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, prompted by a series of editorials written by Sarah Josepha Hale,[1] proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863. The document, written by Secretary of State William Seward, reads as follows:

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth."

Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863.[1]

Since 1863, Thanksgiving has been observed annually in the United States.

[Binyamin Yisrael]

The Bolshevik Attacks on Thanksgiving began with FDR. If not for him, Hanukkah would coincide with Thanksgiving more frequently as it did many times between 1863 and the FDR era. After this year, they will next coincide in 2070 and then again in 2165, but the first night will be Thursday Night, so the day of Thanksgiving won't be Hanukkah.

Post-Civil War Era

Servicemen eating a Thanksgiving dinner during World War I. (1918)

During the second half of the 19th century, Thanksgiving traditions in America varied from region to region. A traditional New England Thanksgiving, for example, consisted of a raffle held on Thanksgiving eve (in which the prizes were mainly geese or turkeys), a shooting match on Thanksgiving morning (in which turkeys and chickens were used as targets), church services, and then the traditional feast which consisted of some familiar Thanksgiving staples such as turkey and pumpkin pie, and some not-so-familiar dishes such as pigeon pie. The earliest high school football rivalries took root in the late 19th century in Massachusetts, stemming from games played on Thanksgiving; professional football took root as a Thanksgiving staple during the sport's genesis in the 1890s, and the tradition of Thanksgiving football both at the high school and professional level continues to this day. In New York City, people would dress up in fanciful masks and costumes and roam the streets in merry-making mobs. By the beginning of the 20th century these mobs had morphed into "ragamuffin parades" consisting mostly of children dressed as "ragamuffins" in costumes of old and mismatched adult clothes and with deliberately smudged faces, and by the late 1950s the tradition had vanished entirely.[25]

1939 to 1941

Freedom from Want, oil painting by Norman Rockwell (1943).

Abraham Lincoln's successors as president followed his example of annually declaring the final Thursday in November to be Thanksgiving. But in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt broke with this tradition.[26] November had five Thursdays that year (instead of the more-common four), and Roosevelt declared the fourth Thursday as Thanksgiving rather than the fifth one. Although many popular histories state otherwise, he made clear that his plan was to establish the holiday on the next-to-last Thursday in the month instead of the last one. With the country still in the midst of The Great Depression, Roosevelt thought an earlier Thanksgiving would give merchants a longer period to sell goods before Christmas. Increasing profits and spending during this period, Roosevelt hoped, would help bring the country out of the Depression. At the time, advertising goods for Christmas before Thanksgiving was considered inappropriate. Fred Lazarus, Jr., founder of the Federated Department Stores (later Macy's), is credited with convincing Roosevelt to push Thanksgiving to a week earlier to expand the shopping season, and within two years the change passed through Congress into law.[27][28]

Republicans decried the change, calling it an affront to the memory of Lincoln. People began referring to November 30 as the "Republican Thanksgiving" and November 23 as the "Democratic Thanksgiving" or "Franksgiving".[29] Regardless of the politics, many localities had made a tradition of celebrating on the last Thursday, and many football teams had a tradition of playing their final games of the season on Thanksgiving; with their schedules set well in advance, they could not change. Since a presidential declaration of Thanksgiving Day was not legally binding, Roosevelt's change was widely disregarded. Twenty-three states went along with Roosevelt's recommendation, 22 did not, and some, like Texas, could not decide and took both days as government holidays.

In 1940 and 1941, years in which November had four Thursdays, Roosevelt declared the third one as Thanksgiving. As in 1939, some states went along with the change while others retained the traditional last-Thursday date.

1942 to present

John F. Kennedy unofficially spares a turkey on November 19, 1963. The practice of "pardoning" turkeys in this manner becomes a permanent tradition in 1989.
On October 6, 1941, both houses of the U.S. Congress passed a joint resolution fixing the traditional last-Thursday date for the holiday beginning in 1942. However, in December of that year the Senate passed an amendment to the resolution that split the difference by requiring that Thanksgiving be observed annually on the fourth Thursday of November, which was sometimes the last Thursday and sometimes (less frequently) the next to last.[30] The amendment also passed the House, and on December 26, 1941 President Roosevelt signed this bill, for the first time making the date of Thanksgiving a matter of federal law and fixing the day as the fourth Thursday of November.[31] However, for several years some states continued to observe the last-Thursday date in years with five November Thursdays (the next such year being 1944), with Texas doing so as late as 1956.

Since 1947, the National Turkey Federation has presented the President of the United States with one live turkey and two dressed turkeys, in a ceremony known as the National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation. John F. Kennedy was the first president reported to spare the turkey given to him ("we'll let this one live"), and Ronald Reagan was the first to grant the turkey a presidential pardon, which he jokingly presented to his 1987 turkey (which would indeed be spared and sent to a petting zoo) in order to deflect questions regarding the Iran–Contra affair. George H. W. Bush, who served as vice president under Reagan, made the turkey pardon a permanent annual tradition upon assuming the presidency in 1989, a tradition that has been carried on by every president each year since.[32]

There are legends that state that the "pardoning" tradition dates to the Harry Truman administration or even to an anecdote of Abraham Lincoln pardoning his son's pet turkey; both stories have been quoted in more recent presidential speeches, but neither has any evidence in the Presidential record.[33] In more recent years, two turkeys have been pardoned, in case the original turkey becomes unavailable for presidential pardoning.[34][35]

Traditional Thanksgiving dinner

U.S. tradition compares the holiday with a meal held in 1621 by the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims who settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts. It is continued in modern times with the Thanksgiving dinner, traditionally featuring turkey, playing a central role in the celebration of Thanksgiving.

In the United States, certain kinds of food are traditionally served at Thanksgiving meals. Firstly, baked or roasted turkey is usually the featured item on any Thanksgiving feast table (so much so that Thanksgiving is sometimes referred to as "Turkey Day"). Stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, sweet corn, various fall vegetables (mainly various kinds of squashes), and pumpkin pie are commonly associated with Thanksgiving dinner. All of these are actually native to the Americas or were introduced as a new food source to the Europeans when they arrived. Turkey may be an exception. In his book Mayflower, Nathaniel Philbrick suggests that the Pilgrims might already have been familiar with turkey in England, even though the bird is native to the Americas. The Spaniards had brought domesticated turkeys back from Central America in the early 17th century, and the birds soon became popular fare all over Europe, including England, where turkey (as an alternative to the traditional goose) became a "fixture at English Christmases".[36]

The poor are often provided with food at Thanksgiving time. Most communities have annual food drives that collect non-perishable packaged and canned foods, and corporations sponsor charitable distributions of staple foods and Thanksgiving dinners.[37]

Giving thanks

Saying grace before carving the turkey at Thanksgiving dinner in the home of Earle Landis in Neffsville, Pennsylvania. (1942)

Thanksgiving was founded as a religious observance for all the members of the community to give thanks to God for a common purpose. Historic reasons for community thanksgivings are: the 1541 thanksgiving mass after the expedition of Francisco Vásquez de Coronado safely crossing the high plains of Texas and finding game,[7][38] and the 1777 thanksgiving after the victory in the Revolutionary War Battle of Saratoga.[7] In his 1789 Proclamation, President Washington gave many noble reasons for a national Thanksgiving, including "for the civil and religious liberty", for "useful knowledge", and for God’s "kind care" and "His Providence".[39] The only presidents to express a specifically Christian perspective in their proclamation have been Grover Cleveland in 1896,[39] and William McKinley in 1900.[39] Several other presidents have cited the Judeo-Christian tradition.

The tradition of giving thanks to God is continued today in various forms. Various religious and spiritual organizations offer worship services and events on Thanksgiving themes the weekend before, the day of, or the weekend after Thanksgiving.[40]

At home, it is a holiday tradition in many families to begin the Thanksgiving dinner by saying grace (a prayer before or after a meal).[41] The custom is portrayed in the photograph "Family Holding Hands and Praying Before a Thanksgiving Meal". Traditionally, grace was led by the hostess or host, though in later times it is usual for others to contribute.[42]

Hesham A. Hassaballa, an American Muslim scholar and physician, has written that Thanksgiving "is wholly consistent with Islamic principles" and that "few things are more Islamic than thanking God for His blessings".[43] Similarly many Sikh Americans also celebrate the holiday by "giving thanks to Almighty".[44]

[Binyamin Yisrael]

Read this article on the real Jewish origin of Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims were Righteous Gentiles and banned X-mas from the New World. They would be horrified to hear how the news media thinks Thanksgiving is the beginning oft the so-called "holiday season". Obviously Thanksgiving is more related to Hanukkah. Both holidays were based on Sukkot and both holidays are about thanking G-d.

http://www.yutorah.org/lectures/lecture.cfm/800522/Rabbi_Meir_Y_Soloveichik/God’s_Providence_and_the_United_States:_A_Thanksgiving_Reader_on_Judaism_and_the_American_Idea

[Binyamin Yisrael]

Turkeys were not known outside of The Americas until the European settlers discovered it. People called it turkey because people thought they were from Turkey while in every language it is named after some other country. In Hebrew it is called Tarnigol Hodu (India chicken) while in Arabic it is called Ethiopia chicken.

The subject of Judaism, Thanksgiving, and turkeys is interesting. The Hebrew word for Thanksgiving is Hodaya which as a command is Hodu and is the same route as Yehudi (Jewish). Jews are called Yehudim because we are supposed to praise G-d. At Thanksgiving dinner I read the 4 lines of The Hallel that start with Hodu LaShem Ki Tov, Ki LeOlam Chasdo.

The Pilgirms that started the first Thanksgiving, orignally fashioned it after Sukkot to celerbrate the Fall harvest. They were Puritans and wanted to purify Christianity and take out what they saw as pagan influences and add original monotheistic things from The Jewish Bible. They didn't even celebrate Christmas. They were Righteous Gentiles and the holiday they created is a monotheistic Judeo-Christian/Noahide holiday based on the Biblical principles The United States was founded on. G-d meant The United States to be the homeland of The Righteous Gentiles and JTF says we as Jews have to be the light unto them to inspire them to take back their country. The new religion in America is being politically correct and worshipping blacks and Muslims. There is a problem in America where the courts are trying to take G-d out of public life. Kids are taught that on Thanksgiving, The Pilgrims thanked The American Indians when they were really thanking G-d. However, another interesting point is that American Indians (Indianim) were named after Indians from India (Hodu) which brings us back to Hodaya.

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Jewish law about whether a bird is kosher is that if it is not a bird of prey and there is a tradition that it is kosher then it is kosher. But turkeys came from The New World after the traditions were already established but it is considered to be kosher because it is just a bigger version of a chicken and in Hebrew its name is India Chicken.

Birds used to be pareve but the rabbis made them meat because someone might get them confused with red meat (Whose mothers' literally have milk.) but to this day Karaites still eat chicken with milk because due to their lack of The Oral Law, they simply see it forbidden to eat an animal on its mother's milk and chickens' mothers don't have milk. But there always were rules of shechita for poultry unlike fish which remain pareve to this day. In fact fish is the only pareve food that is forbidden to be eaten with meat because it is not healthy to do so. However to eat meat after and fish and vice-versa all you have to do is drink water or some other drink. You can even do it at the same meal.

[Ephraim Ben Noach]

Turkeys were not known outside of The Americas until the European settlers discovered it. People called it turkey because people thought they were from Turkey while in every language it is named after some other country. In Hebrew it is called Tarnigol Hodu (India chicken) while in Arabic it is called Ethiopia chicken.

The subject of Judaism, Thanksgiving, and turkeys is interesting. The Hebrew word for Thanksgiving is Hodaya which as a command is Hodu and is the same route as Yehudi (Jewish). Jews are called Yehudim because we are supposed to praise G-d. At Thanksgiving dinner I read the 4 lines of The Hallel that start with Hodu LaShem Ki Tov, Ki LeOlam Chasdo.

The Pilgirms that started the first Thanksgiving, orignally fashioned it after Sukkot to celerbrate the Fall harvest. They were Puritans and wanted to purify Christianity and take out what they saw as pagan influences and add original monotheistic things from The Jewish Bible. They didn't even celebrate Christmas. They were Righteous Gentiles and the holiday they created is a monotheistic Judeo-Christian/Noahide holiday based on the Biblical principles The United States was founded on. G-d meant The United States to be the homeland of The Righteous Gentiles and JTF says we as Jews have to be the light unto them to inspire them to take back their country. The new religion in America is being politically correct and worshipping blacks and Muslims. There is a problem in America where the courts are trying to take G-d out of public life. Kids are taught that on Thanksgiving, The Pilgrims thanked The American Indians when they were really thanking G-d. However, another interesting point is that American Indians (Indianim) were named after Indians from India (Hodu) which brings us back to Hodaya.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jewish law about whether a bird is kosher is that if it is not a bird of prey and there is a tradition that it is kosher then it is kosher. But turkeys came from The New World after the traditions were already established but it is considered to be kosher because it is just a bigger version of a chicken and in Hebrew its name is India Chicken.

Birds used to be pareve but the rabbis made them meat because someone might get them confused with red meat (Whose mothers' literally have milk.) but to this day Karaites still eat chicken with milk because due to their lack of The Oral Law, they simply see it forbidden to eat an animal on its mother's milk and chickens' mothers don't have milk. But there always were rules of shechita for poultry unlike fish which remain pareve to this day. In fact fish is the only pareve food that is forbidden to be eaten with meat because it is not healthy to do so. However to eat meat after and fish and vice-versa all you have to do is drink water or some other drink. You can even do it at the same meal.

 

[muman613]

Not wanting to be controversial, but there are also a lot of differences between the holidays.

1) Hannukah is a Holy Day / Thanksgiving is not
2) Hannukah celebrates two miracles, the victory of the Maccabees over the Hellenists and the miracle of the oil lasting eight days. Thanksgiving does not have such miracles.
3) Hannukah has rituals meant to teach Jewish history (Dreidel, Latkes and Sufganiyot) while Thanksgiving has no such rituals.
4) Hannukah is celebrated without a great feast while Thanksgiving is celebrated with a feast.


Some Jewish sages did forbid Jews from engaging in the holiday.

See this site for the pros & cons according to the Poseks:

http://www.tfdixie.com/special/thanksg.htm

A Halachic Analysis of Thanksgiving

Having reviewed the history of Thanksgiving, it is now necessary to turn to the question of halachic issues involved in its "celebration". The first, and most significant issue, is whether it is permissible to eat a Thanksgiving meal, with the classical foods that American tradition indicates one should eat at this meal: turkey (15) and cranberry sauce. Among the authorities of the previous generation, three different positions have been taken on this topic, and these three positions have each been accepted by various halachic authorities of the current generation.

However, before these three positions can be understood, a certain background into the nature of the prohibition to imitate Gentile customs must be understood. (16) Tosafot understands that two distinctly different types of customs are forbidden by the prohibition of imitating Gentile customs found in Leviticus 18:3. The first is idolatrous customs and the second is foolish customs found in the Gentile community, even if their origins are not idolatrous. (17) Rabbenu Nissim and Maharik disagree and rule that only customs that have a basis in idolatrous practices are prohibited. Apparently foolish -- but secular -- customs are permissible so long as they have a reasonable explanation (and are not immodest). (18) Normative halacha follows the ruling of the Ran and Maharik. As noted by Rama:

* - Those practices done as a [Gentile] custom or law with no reason one suspects that it in an idolatrous practice or that there is a taint of idolatrous origins; however, those customs which are practiced for a reason, such as the physician who wears a special garment to identify him as a doctor, can be done; the same is true for any custom done out of honor or any other reason is permissible. (19)

As will be seen later, there are authorities who favor being strict for the opinion of the Gra, who rules that the only time "secular" customs are permissible is when they have a Jewish origin. (20) According to this approach, secular customs created by Gentiles are prohibited even when their origins are not religious.

Additionally -- and independent of the halachic obligation to avoid Gentile religious customs -- Jewish law forbids a Jew from actually celebrating idolatrous religious events himself. Thus, a Jew may not attend an idolatrous "Indian" (21) office party or directly facilitate its observance. (22) So too, a Jew may not attend a birthday party for an idol worshipper if the birthday party includes worship of idols. (23)

[Binyamin Yisrael]

Some rabbis say we should celebrate it because of the concept Dinah DeMalchuta Dinah. My rabbi gave a shiur about American holidays. I told him I have a BBQ on Friday when the Fourth of July is Shabbat. He asked whether the custom was to eat BBQ food on July 4 or to cook it. I simply move it up a day and eat leftovers for Shabbat. I told it's not a mitzvah so everyone does what they want to do. So he said "Dinah DeMalchuta Dinah".

[Binyamin Yisrael]

This is the shiur I was referring to.

http://www.yutorah.org/lectures/lecture.cfm/766724/Rabbi_Yonah_Gross/Secular_&_Religious_Holidays:_Ignore,_Recognize,_or_Celebrate

[Binyamin Yisrael]

The first concept of Thanksgiving comes from Parashat Vayetzeh which sometimes is read the week of Thanksgiving. In that parasha, Leah is said to be the first person to thank G-d when she names her son Yehuda from the word lehodot, to praise. The word Yehudi, Jewish, is derived from Yehuda. Thus our whole religion is about giving thanks to G-d. Someone talked about this after Mincha one year at synagogue on Thanksgiving and I asked if he brought it up because of Thanksgiving and he said he didn't think about that but it must be Divine Providence that Thanskgiving falls around this Torah portion.

Some religious Jews in my synagogue have Thanksgiving dinners so there is a machloket regarding whether it is forbidden for Jews to celebrate Thanksgiving. Chaim holds that it's forbidden but he also holds it's forbidden for Jews to celebrate the Fourth of July or any national holiday in the Exile and compared it to the Jews feasting with Achashverosh in Megilat Esther. There are also those that reject it for reasons such as saying every day is Thanksgiving for Jews so we don't need a special day but that doesn't mean it's forbidden. Others will claim it's a "Christian holiday". So religious Jews, whether they are for or against celebrating it recognize the religious character of the holiday. On the other hand, Leftist Jews just think it's a time for eating a large meal with their family and don't see it as religious at all.

[Rubystars]

Thanksgiving is related to Sukkot, not Hannukah.

[Binyamin Yisrael]

Thanksgiving is related to Sukkot, not Hannukah.

The eight days of Hanukkah were partly based on the 7 days of Sukkot and Shemni Atzeret (The Eighth Day Closing Yom Tov.) because Sukkot was missed that year when the Temple was defiled.

Hanukkah and other Rabbinic holidays are to thank G-d for miracles that happened. Sukkot is a Torah command, not Rabbinic. It does share the agricultural aspects with Thanksgiving though. The Pilgrims declared Thanksgiving for G-d brining them safely to the New World. They saw crossing the Atlantic Ocean like the Jews crossing the Red Sea. To this day, Jews are required to say a bracha after crossing the ocean, which has its source in the Thanksgiving offering when one is saved from danger (Derived from Psalm 107). Eventually, Thanksgiving became a general day of being thankful to G-d for all that He has given us. But the original Thanksgiving was based on Pslam 107. You can call it an American Rabbinic holiday (for lack of a better term) enacted by the Pilgrims for the miracles done to them. You can compare it to communities of Jews having Purim Katan for an event which happened to their own community as opposed to the miracle of Purim for the entire Jewish People.

The Pilgrims actually quote The Rambam. See the article I posted a link to at YUTorah. It's a .pdf file so I couldn't paste it.

[Binyamin Yisrael]

https://www.wordsearchbible.com/products/27885/sample_text

Warning: I don't know the authority of the above website from where this was taken and whether the comments are Halachically valid. It is meant for Historical purposes only.

Psalm 107.
The Pilgrims' Psalm: Part 1

Psalm 107

It may seem strange to anyone who knows anything about the English Puritans to speak of Psalm 107 as "The Pilgrims' Psalm," not because they did not know, frequently read, and greatly cherish it, but because being people of the Book they loved and cherished the other psalms too. In fact, they cherished the entire Bible.

But that is not the whole story. As anyone who knows anything about the Pilgrims is aware, Psalm 107, more than any other portion of the Bible, aptly describes the many dangers, toils, and snares they experienced prior to, during, and after their courageous crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to found America's Plymouth Colony. Did they recognize this description themselves? There is reason to think they did, since Governor William Bradford in his account of the founding of the Plymouth Plantation explicitly referred to Psalm 107 in his well-known summation of their achievement:

May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: "Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and he heard their voice and looked on their adversity,"... "Let them therefore praise the Lord, because he is good: and his mercies endure forever." "Yes, let them which have been redeemed of the Lord, shew how he hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered in the desert wilderness out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord his loving kindness and his wonderful works before the sons of men."

Those words are based on Psalm 107, which suggests that the psalm was often in the Pilgrims' minds. Since the Pilgrims came ashore on Monday, December 11, 1620, after having spent the prior day worshiping God, it is even likely that Psalm 107 was the basis for that Sabbath's meditation.

In its own setting Psalm 107 is a praise song of the regathered people of Israel after their Babylonian bondage. Thus Psalms 105, 106, and 107 form a trilogy. Psalm 105 recounts Israel's experience from the time of God's covenant with Abraham to the people's entrance into the promised land; Psalm 106 tracks their unfaithfulness during that same time period and reflects the years of their exile to Babylon; and Psalm 107 thanks God for their deliverance from that exile. Still, the psalm was aptly used by the Pilgrims and may be loved by us as well, since the examples it gives of the perils from which the people of God are delivered are at once common, varied, and suggestive. We can see ourselves in each of these situations.

The psalm has three parts: an opening (vv. 1-3), the main body (vv. 4-32), and a closing grateful reflection on God's sovereignty in human affairs (vv. 33-43, the subject of our next chapter).

[Binyamin Yisrael]

http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/gomel

On Bentshing Gomel (Psalm 107)

Reprinted from Holy Beggars’ Gazette vol 2 no. 3 with the permission of all the Holy Beggars….

Not for commercial redistribution without written consent of the Estate of Reb Shlomo Carlebach.

House of Love and Prayer, San Francisco
Kislev, 5734

On Bentshing Gomel (Psalm 107)

   On four occasions we have to bentsh gomel, say a special blessing
 that G-d helped us. One is when someone was lost in the desert, One
 is when someone was in prison, the third is if someone was sick, and
 the other is when someone crossed the ocean by ship, or now most
 people say if you fly over the ocean too.

    What is the whole question of being in exile or being free? Being
 in exile means I am not in the place where I am supposed to be. Free
 means I am in the place where I am supposed to be. It doesn’t have
 to be a different address. If I am sick, I am really not in the place I
 am supposed to be, because I am supposed to be well. If I am crazy,
 G-d forbid, I am also not in the place I am sup posed to be. if I am
 lost in the desert, or in prison, or in the waves of the ocean, I am not
 where I am supposed to be.

    The G’mora says that evil is a strange ingredient. If you put some
 in the cake or the soup, like salt or pepper, it really tastes good. If
 you overdo it you feel there is something in the soup which doesn’t
 belong there. So a certain amount of evil is important. Evil has
 something good about it, a certain fire, even a certain battle. If I
 would do everything without free choice, if I would just want to do
 it, it would be nothing. If I had free choice and I did it, then it does
 something to me. Reb Nachman says the whole idea of evil was created
 only in order to give me free choice. Evil was never in the world for
 me to do evil, it was only put there so that when I do right—it can be
 done on a different level. If we do wrong, that is completely out of
 place.

    Every Jew, every person, is in exile in his own way; we are not in
 the place we should be, and all of Israel is also not in the place where
 they should be. This is only until Shabbos comes. When Shabbos
 comes then suddenly something happens and we become free. That
 means we get rid of that part of us which is wrong ingredients, we are
 back in our place, everything is right again.

    The first reason for bentshing gomel is being lost in the desert.
 What is in the desert? In the desert nothing grows, nothing happens.
 The strongest exile might be to be a desert person, to do nothing,
 like a desert where nothing grows, nothing is built. What is this exile
 of desert? it is laziness. Actually this is the utmost of evil. Laziness
 comes from gravity. Gravity pulls me down, makes everything heavy,
 so that I don’t have the strength to do it. Reb Nachman says that
 y’sod hefar element of earth is such that holy earth makes
 everything grow, and unholy earth makes everything heavy, just by
 the gravity of it, nothing else.

    There is no way out of laziness. You just have to stop being lazy.
 There are no two ways about it. Do you know what lazy means?
 Food is in front of you and you are too lazy to lift up your hand,
 There is food all over, holy food. You are dying from hunger, and
 food is right there in front of you. How can I oret rid of laziness? I
 take it out of myself alone. There are certain things which I can
 on my own, certain sicknesses for which I can take medicine, and
 certain sicknesses for which I just have to see a doctor. There is a
 sickness called laziness and you can’t get rid of it on your own. There
 to be a great light from Heaven to cure you. This is Shabbos.
 Suddenly when Shabbos comes we get rid of all this heaviness, all
 this gravity, and stop being a desert, and we are ready to build again.

    The second person who has to bentsh gomel is a person who has
 been in prison. What is a prison? I am in one room and I can’t get
 out. What is so bad about being in prison? I have a bed, and they
 feed me, so what is so bad? I can’t move. This is not being lazy, it is
 something else. Imagine I meet a woman and she says something to
 me and I am really hurt. She didn’t mean it; I didn’t mean it, and it is
 a stupid thing. It is possible that I could be very stupid and be
 bothered by it. I could walk around for weeks and be in prison all
 the time. I think, “Why did she say that?” First of all ask her why
 she said it, maybe she didn’t mean it. Everyone has his little prison.
 He is hung up on one sweet little thing and he can’t get out of it.
 This is not laziness. This is complete darkness. Laziness is not
 darkness, it is just laziness, and nothing happens. This is darkness,
 because whatever good happens to me, whatever great things I can do
 in the world, whatever good and holy things people tell me are
 spoiled if I am still thinking, “Why did she say that?” That is
 possible, and it puts darkness into everything. Shabbos takes you out
 of that darkness.

    Then comes the third person, the one who was sick. There are two
 levels of sickness. There is one kind of sickness in which you are
 simply sick. Then there is a stronger kind of sickness which is that
 when they give you the best food you think it is bad, and when they
 give you the lowest, rotten, evil smelling food you think it is
 tremendous. It is possible that your taste is completely gone, but you
 are still alive. Then there is a lower level, G-d forbid, where you are
 just about dead. Then comes Shabbos. Every Shabbos G-d gives us
 one holy word to bring us back to life. Within those twenty-six
 hours of Shabbos either you or someone else tells you one holy
 word, and this one holy word can really get to you if you only have
 enough sense to hold on to it.

    The people who bentsh gomel for crossing the ocean represent the
 whole world, and the way people in the world treat each other, the
 way natures treat each other, going up and down like waves. You are
 living in the world, and the vibrations of all the lies in the world
 really get to you, make you go up and down, knock you off. The
 Baal Shem Tov. said the body is the ship, and the soul is in the ship.
 The body goes up and down, one minute super holy, one minute
 absolutely the lowest, just like the waves, It is not that we are not
 holy—we are holy, but the whole problem is that the next minute we
 are low again. We are both the holy of holiest, and we are the unholy
 of the unholiest. We don’t know where we belong. It is like a ship in
 the ocean which can’t find any anchor. Then comes Shabbos, and on
 Shabbos we are in a place where the whole world can’t reach us. We
 can really find our place back on the shore.

[Ephraim Ben Noach]

The eight days of Hanukkah were partly based on the 7 days of Sukkot and Shemni Atzeret (The Eighth Day Closing Yom Tov.) because Sukkot was missed that year when the Temple was defiled.

Hanukkah and other Rabbinic holidays are to thank G-d for miracles that happened. Sukkot is a Torah command, not Rabbinic. It does share the agricultural aspects with Thanksgiving though. The Pilgrims declared Thanksgiving for G-d brining them safely to the New World. They saw crossing the Atlantic Ocean like the Jews crossing the Red Sea. To this day, Jews are required to say a bracha after crossing the ocean, which has its source in the Thanksgiving offering when one is saved from danger (Derived from Psalm 107). Eventually, Thanksgiving became a general day of being thankful to G-d for all that He has given us. But the original Thanksgiving was based on Pslam 107. You can call it an American Rabbinic holiday (for lack of a better term) enacted by the Pilgrims for the miracles done to them. You can compare it to communities of Jews having Purim Katan for an event which happened to their own community as opposed to the miracle of Purim for the entire Jewish People.

The Pilgrims actually quote The Rambam. See the article I posted a link to at YUTorah. It's a .pdf file so I couldn't paste it.

The U.S. seal proposed by Ben Franklin was , the Israelites crossing the Red Sea.

[muman613]

One of the issues with secular holidays which thank Hashem is that it misses the point that a religious Jew realizes every day.

We Thank Hashem every day, from the moment we awake (With Modeh Ani {We gratefully acknowlege}) to the moment before we fall asleep. A Jew who is aware of his mission will Bless Hashem over 100 times a day (there is a Halacha which requires us to make at least 100 brachot a day). The name Jew comes from Yehuda which means to Thank G-d... We are thanking Hashem for both the good and the bad...

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/987904/jewish/How-Many-Blessings-does-a-Jew-Say-Each-Day.htm

So what then do we need a day dedicated to Thanking him?

I do agree that it is a good think to acknowledge the good which the country of America has bestowed on the Jewish people. I believe this is already expressed when we recite the blessing on the state..

http://www.askmoses.com/en/article/287,2067239/What-is-the-origin-of-the-prayer-for-the-welfare-of-the-government.html

I used to be very enthusiastic concerning Thanksgiving but over the years my taste for Turkey has waned. This year we will observe the occasion by having a traditional meal (but I hope to not have as many left-overs as previous years which ultimately went to waste)...

[Ephraim Ben Noach]

Also, the Crypto Jews, Cromwell, and Puritans were all connected. Weird huh...

[Binyamin Yisrael]

Also, the Crypto Jews, Cromwell, and Puritans were all connected. Weird huh...

Isaac Newton also studied Jewish views on the Bible. Cromwell allowed the Jews back into England.