Why would a yid WANT TO celebrate Thanksgiving?

Aside from Hanukkah gift swap, it's the only holiday my parents will celebrate with us, sadly enough. If they didn't live near us, I wouldn't celebrate. I do like the food so I don't mind. I make the turkey, stuffing and gravy; my mom the 'easier' stuff.
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Silver Member Joined: May 27 2008 Posts: 732

they do the prayer for the the state in non chareidi english shuls, but afaik not in chareidi ones.

Posted: Mon, Nov 21 2011, 3:22 pm Post subject:

It is my family tradition. It makes me feel warmand fuzzy. The food is awesome. It is secular holiday, not a religious one.Very easy for kids to understand the difference. But maybe my kids are super smart.
That said the only time I have celebrated in the last 18 yearswas the rare oppurtunities when I was with my family anyway. On the ok of my rav.
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Platinum Member Joined: Nov 04 2008 Posts: 7946

I am an immigrant. I love America with all my heart and am proud to be an American. This country has given us so much -- a peaceful old age to my grandparents, who would never have lived this long without the incredible health care here, job opportunities for my parents, a great education for me and my friends. How could I NOT celebrate Thanksgiving?
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Thanksgiving is a secular holiday, I'm pretty sure they gave thanks to their g-ds not Hashem. As jews we should thank Hashem everyday for this wonderful country and all the opportunities it gives us. I do understand if you have the day off and also have secular family it is a good day to spend with them and to show as frum jews we do appreciate this country. I do not believe if you come from a frum family and are frum you should necessarily celebrate this day as thanks. I especially do not think it is L'kovod shabbos to serve leftover Thanksgiving food.

Gold Member Joined: Nov 27 2008 Posts: 1635

We don't do it to celebrate Thanksgiving. We make turkey and all that for Shabbos simply because....we like the food Smile

Thanksgiving is a good excuse to eat pumpkin pie, and pumpkin pie is delicious.

I think some of the amothers here (or are they all OP?) are secretly jealous. I would also be overly upset by a relatively tiny hashkafic difference if I weren't going to eat pumpkin pie this weekend.

I'm not sure all the history in this thread is entirely accurate. The founding fathers called for religious freedom more or less, but I'm not sure the Pilgrims wanted religious freedom for all. And whatever the official platform was, it's been plenty difficult to be a Jew in most of America for much of America's history. But I agree that today America is probably among the best countries to be if you're Jewish.

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Moderator Joined: Jun 05 2011 Posts: 3378

I never thought of celebrating Thanksgiving as I grew up in a home that did not, and neither did my DH. I'm glad that the kids have a half a day of school and the bank is closed - that means I don't have to balance my accounts on that day!

I'm really unsure about what is the right thing to do. As I said, I just do what I was raised to do, and that is to get ready for Shabbos on Thursday evenings!

Here are some thoughts I'm wondering about:

Do you think of yourself as an American who also happens to have a Jewish heritage?

Do you think of yourself as a Jew who also happens to be an American citizen?

Those two people might DO most of the same things, but they are THINKING very different things.

Also, how would we feel if we found out that our ancestors in Spain celebrated a Spanish version of Thanksgiving for the Golden Years of Spain... right through 1491? That would put a bit of a pit in our stomachs, wouldn't it, knowing that the Jews were expelled the next year?

What if the Jews in Germany, those who called Berlin the Jerusalem of Europe, celebrated a German Thanksgiving right up until the early 1930's? Wouldn't we have some explaining to do to them?

As an American, I'm very grateful to the US for many things right now. But why are we all so sure that it's such a good idea to identify ourselves in our hearts and feelings as Americans... why on earth should the golden years of US Jewry turn out any better than any of the other good times we had in various countries throughout our thousands of years in exile?
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Posted: Mon, Nov 21 2011, 5:08 pm Post subject:

No one has said this reason yet (although we celebrate Thanksgiving for the above reasons as well). You can get many secular (not yet religious) Jews to come over for turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce and they won't think you are going to hit them over the head with "Jewish" stuff. Some of our guests who couldn't handle Shabbos for whatever reason always came to Thanksgiving dinner. We still had a d'var torah and made brochos on the food so they had some exposure and opportunity to be with other Jews (although we also invited foreign students to see what Thanksgiving is like as well). Good stuff all around.

Oh, and we never use Thanksgiving leftovers for Shabbos. Shabbos food and Thanksgiving food are way different and I don't mix them. IMHO, Shabbos gets more food, better food and always new food.
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