Thanksgiving Sermon of Rabbi Zev Zahavy from 1943

Here is my dad's incredible inspiring and uplifting sermon from 1943 for the holiday of Thanksgiving. It was a dark year in the history of humankind. Yet Rabbi Zahavy found ways to weave together precepts from our classical Jewish tradition to give hope and optimism to those who faced the bewildering frightening world of 1943.

I read this sermon every year and it inspires me more each time. My father was an impresario of the rabbinic pulpit.

Click here for the original text of Rabbi Zev Zahavy's 1943 Thanksgiving Sermon, published by the RCA, Rabbinical Council of America.

From the Manual of Holiday and Occasional Sermons, published in 1943 by the Rabbinical Council of America. This publication contains various sermons for Jewish holidays like Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Succoth, as well as other occasions. Specifically, the excerpts detail the full text of a sermon titled “Reasons for Thanksgiving Today” by Rabbi Zev Goldstein, which discusses why American Jews should observe the Thanksgiving holiday, even amid the second World War. The sermon explores themes of gratitude, faith, and hope during a period of global crisis, referencing the importance of thanking G-d for safety, recovery from illness, and freedom from servitude.

Here is a link to the video overview from NotebookLM (2025 - my dad would've liked this).  

And here is the link to the notebook itself. Or click below and watch. Expand it to full screen for greatest enjoyment!

A big hat tip to Zechariah for finding this and sending it to us.

This sermon for Thanksgiving Day discusses the following main points:
* **The Importance of Thanksgiving:** The sermon emphasizes the significance of Thanksgiving as a time for reflection and gratitude, especially during challenging times.
* **Reasons for Thanksgiving:** It explores the four reasons for giving thanks mentioned in the Talmud: safe passage across the ocean, completing a journey through the wilderness, recovery from illness, and release from servitude.
* **Challenges to Gratitude:** The sermon acknowledges the difficulties in finding reasons for gratitude in the face of war, suffering, and injustice.
* **The Jewish Perspective on Suffering:** It highlights the Jewish tradition of finding meaning and expressing gratitude even in difficult circumstances, drawing on the example of Rabbi Akiva.
* **Hope and Faith in the Future:** The sermon emphasizes the importance of maintaining hope and faith in the future, even during times of crisis.
* **A Prayer for a Better Future:** It concludes with a prayer for a future characterized by peace, justice, and freedom.
Overall, the sermon encourages listeners to find reasons for gratitude and to maintain hope for a better future, even in the face of adversity.

Thanksgiving Turkey Drumstick Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin Pie Table Song - A Lone Pumpkin Grew

Thanksgiving is upon us soon and we sing traditional holiday songs at our Thanksgiving dinner.

Here are the words to one of our classic favorites...

Oh a lone pumpkin grew on a green pumpkin vine.

He was round

he was fat

he was yellow.

"No silly jack-o-lantern shall I make," he said.

"I'm determined to become a useful fellow."

So he raised up his head

when the cook came around

and at once he was chosen the winner.

His fondest wish came true

he was proud pumpkin pie

and the glory of the great thanksgiving dinner...

For the glory of the jack is in the lantern

as he sits up on the gatepost oh so high;

and the glory of the turkey is the drumstick

but the glory of the pumpkin is the pie.

Here we are singing the song in 2006:

Here's a YouTube 2009 home video of the song -- we don't know the folks -- it sounds like our familiar melody and we endorse it.

The Talmud Explains Hanukkah

There is no Mishnah or Talmud tractate for the festival of lights. Why is that?

It is an incredible question. Not going to speculate. All we have in rabbinic literature is this...

The Talmud (Bavli Shabbat 21b) explains what is Hanukkah:

What is Hanukkah? For our Rabbis taught: On the twenty-fifth of Kislev commence the days of Hanukkah, which are eight on which a lamentation for the dead and fasting are forbidden.

For when the Greeks entered the Temple, they defiled all the oils therein, and when the Hasmonean dynasty prevailed against and defeated them, they made search and found only one cruse of oil which lay with the seal of the High Priest, but which contained sufficient for one day's lighting only; yet a miracle was wrought therein and they lit the lamp therewith for eight days. 

The following year these days were appointed a Festival with the recital of Hallel and thanksgiving.

What else is there to say?

Ten Tips for a Better Seder - with Trump Tips Added

It's a great performance. A dramatic Off-Broadway revue.

I have always had fun directing the reading of the Haggadah at the Seder. I learned this dramatic art as a child by watching my father (Rabbi Zev Zahavy) masterfully conduct the performance of the communal synagogue Seders as the rabbi of the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan. He did it right and authentic and dramatic.

So in the spirit of the season of rebirth and freedom, let me offer you ten tips for your seder extravaganza - this year we must add Trump Tips.

A Menorah is not a Torah

Fairlawn NJ allowed the display of a Menorah in its Borough holiday display on public land a few years ago for the first time -- after debating the matter for a mere 30 years.

Why was that a good thing? Let me probe into this issue.

Like handshakes and holiday greetings -- seasonal trees and lamps can represent religion on a permitted surface level.

But Fairlawn and other municipalities should not feel free to promote all religious symbols in public government displays. Nativity scenes and Torah Scrolls, for instance, always symbolize faith in a more serious and illegal manner.

So says the U.S. Supreme Court in a classic decision in 1989 that allowed some displays of religious symbols on government property while prohibiting others. At that time many expressed dismay over the ruling. Conservative Roman Catholic scholar Michael Novak, for instance, argued that the ruling represented a governmental aversion to religion, that the court was saying that, "The religiousness of Jews and Christians is to be shunned as if it were an infectious disease."

Oops, I ate all the little bits while carving the turkey

Happy Thanksgiving to all our readers and friends.

God's Favorite Prayers

Thanksgiving Hagaddah and Thanksgiving Mishnah for Jews

I. Thanksgiving Hagaddah

In 2006 if you checked your NY Times Magazine or your New Yorker Magazine at this time you found a copy of America's Table stapled inside.

It was a "Thanksgiving Reader" that you could take to the dinner table and take turns reading.

Sounds like a Passover Hagaddah, no? You can go to the AJC web site and download the booklet as a PDF file.

The Jewish Standard had an article by Lois Goldrich about the booklet which described how the project took shape. The contents as described by Goldrich are,

The format — a "universal" narration, which remains constant each year, accompanied by profiles of men and women whose lives "illustrate the power of diversity and democratic values" — was designed to help Americans find common ground in a world where, often, differences are considered threatening, said Schept. The people profiled are recommended by AJCommittee chapters and are largely drawn from their interfaith contacts.

I found the readings so-so. There are so many classical statements of our "diverse roots and shared values" that could have been used in the booklet. And many stories of great Americans that should have been included. Take a look. Maybe it works for you.

II. Thanksgiving Mishnah

One year when I was teaching a course called Intro to Judaism at the University of Minnesota I asked the students to write a little creative assignment -- a Mishnah chapter for Thanksgiving based on what they were studying in their course readings.

The text we used was meant to teach the characteristics of the Mishnah is chapter 8 of Berakhot which contains the disputes between the Houses of Hillel and Shammai concerning the detailed order of the rituals and mannerisms of the Sabbath meal.

All the students did a wonderful job devising their own Mishnahs -- except for one. Surprisingly she was an Israeli student who actually knew what Mishnah was even before taking my course.

Here is the twist. When she came to me to discuss why she could not do the assignment she said, "Sure I know what is Mishnah. I learned about it in school is Israel.

"The problem is that I just came to the US and I have no idea what is Thanksgiving."

Ah, the problems of teaching at the multi-national midwestern university. [Annual repost.]