Presented by Al Kohn on 9/5/2015

When you enter the land that the Eternal your God is giving you as a heritage, and you possess it and settle in it, you shall take some of every first fruit of the soil, which you harvest from the land that the Eternal your God is giving you, put it in a basket and go to the place where the Eternal your God will choose to establish the divine name. You shall go to the priest in charge at that time and say to him, “I acknowledge this day before the Eternal your God that I have entered the land that the Eternal swore to our fathers to assign us.” (Deuteronomy 26:1-3)

You shall then recite as follows before the Eternal your God: “My father was a fugitive Aramean. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but there he became a great and very populous nation. The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and oppressed us; they imposed heavy labor upon us. We cried to the Eternal, the God of our ancestors, and the Eternal heard our plea and saw our plight, our misery, and our oppression. The Eternal freed us from Egypt by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm and awesome power, and by signs and portents, bringing us to this place and giving us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Wherefore I now bring the first fruits of the soil which You, Eternal One, have given me.” (Deuteronomy 26:5-10)

And you shall enjoy, together with the [family of the] Levite and the stranger in your midst, all the bounty that the Eternal your God has bestowed upon you and your household. (Deuteronomy 26:11)

In this portion, Ki Tavo, Moses is telling his people: When you enter the land and have your first harvest, don’t forget to give thanks for all your blessings.

I will now focus on gratitude.

Gratitude Quotes

1. “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” – Marcel Proust
2. “We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” – Thornton Wilder
3. As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. John F. Kennedy
4. At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. Albert Schweitzer
5. The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated.
– WIlliam James
6. “Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.”
– Oprah Winfrey
7. He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” – Epictetus

Reprinted from “Words of Gratitude: For Mind, Body, and Soul,” by Robert Emmons and Joanna Hill, with permission of the publisher, Templeton Foundation Press

“In Judaism, gratitude is a vital component of worship and permeates every aspect of the worshiper’s daily life. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the poetry of the Psalms is saturated with thanksgiving to God: “O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever “(30:12) and “I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart “(9:1).

The day starts with the Shema, which begins: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might “(Deuteronomy 6:5). The concluding prayer, the ‘aleinu’, thanks God for the particular destiny of the Jewish people.

Thankfulness for everything is appropriate in Judaism because all things come from God in the Hebrew world view; therefore, Jewish life is filled with this recognition. A prayer is said upon hearing good or bad news, and God is praised for everything. In this way, a divine perspective on life is maintained.”

So to summarize, in Judaism, gratitude is an essential part of the act of worship and a part of every aspect of a worshiper’s life. According to the Jewish worldview, all things come from God and because of this, gratitude is extremely important to the followers of Judaism. Our scriptures are filled with the idea of gratitude. One of the crucial blessings in the central thrice-daily prayer, the “Amidah”, is called “Modim” – “We give thanks to You”; this is also the only blessing which is recited by a traditional congregation together with the service leader during their repetition of the Amidah.  Along with these prayers, faithful worshipers recite more than one hundred blessings  throughout the day. In Judaism there is also a major emphasis on gratitude for acts of human kindness and goodness.

So, let us all be grateful for what we have, what we can offer to others in our deeds and wisdom,  and be thankful for what we don’t have in terms of serious illnesses. Shabbat Shalom.