Being Thankful Leads to Happiness

Here we are, gathering in shul, on the day after Thanksgiving. Perhaps it really is a Shabbat like any other Shabbat, but somehow it feels different in many ways. Yesterday many of us took time to verbalize why we are thankful, aware that the celebration of Thanksgiving is a secular celebration focused on being thankful. This evening, we have just finished reading several psalms that remind us about having an attitude of gratitude toward G-d.

Two psalms definitely make statements about being thankful. Psalm 92 says, “It is good to give thanks to the Lord.” Psalm 95 says, “Let us approach Him with thanksgiving and acclaim Him with songs of praise.”

Who does it help to be thankful? Does it help G-d or does it help us? Dennis Prager wrote, “There is a secret to happiness and it is gratitude. All happy people are grateful, and ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that it is being unhappy that leads people to complain, but it is truer to say that it is complaining that leads to people becoming unhappy. Become grateful and you will become a much happier person.”

It is no accident that Jews are called Yehudim in Hebrew. The word is a variant of the word Yehudah, one who gives thanks to G-d. It is part and parcel of our tradition to utter words of thankfulness to G-d before we eat and after we eat. We are to offer praises every morning for being able to greet another day, knowing the difference between light and dark, and having the strength to get through the day. In fact, it is considered a goal to utter one hundred brachot a day, thanking G-d for His continued blessings.

The last thing that Judaism wants us to do is to take our good fortune for granted. If we learn to identify the good as a blessing and learn to count our blessings…they will bring us so much pleasure. I feel that our gathering with the Ferrill/Novak families this weekend, is a wonderful reminder of the joys one can experience when counting their blessings. May this celebration of Jacob’s coming of age as an adult within the eyes of Judaism, fill us with joy as we count our blessings that it is happening at Tifereth Israel in presence of his grandmother and grandfather.

Shabbat Shalom.