It was a thoroughly explosive week.
Some say hat the preemptive nature of the exploding pagers in Lebanon is on the caliber of the preemptive strike that won Israel the war in 1967, The Six Day War.
I’m no expert on military or covert operations and though this is beyond wondrous and seems like a plot straight out of a movie, I am hardly surprised.
Our whole history is replete with wondrous moments and miracles. Some seeming supernatural and others appearing to be natural occurrences with such low odds of success that something deeper at play, screams out. The hand of G-d we know from experience, isn’t too short to provide in every which way.
Yet though I’m not surprised, it does draw forth tremendous gratitude to the Almighty. Gratitude is a foundational part of Judaism and this week’s Torah portion focuses specifically on this idea.
In Temple times we would bring the first fruits of the season (from specific species) to the Kohen and then go through a detailed ritual as we dedicated this bounty to Gd. We would proclaim the challenges of our history that very nearly derailed the very establishment of the Jewish nation and end with explicit praise and recognition for the great blessing of this new and fresh crop. It’s a long speech for a basket of freshly picked items and scrolling back hundreds of years to talk of the challenge seem a little overdone.
Yet suffice to say, it was an exercise and a lesson in appreciation. Not mere lip service or a quick grunt of appreciation rather, a text delineating and articulating the full extent of the blessing. The extent that can’t start with the beginning of the planting of this particular fruit, rather, all the steps beforehand that even afforded us the opportunity to plant.
This resulted in extreme joy. For joy always follows appreciation! On an average day, we move so fast, that not only don’t we have time to appreciate fully what we have we often don’t even realize that we have what to appreciate! Pause for reflection to be sure.
As we prepare for the New Year with our complete list of requests, let’s not forget to recognize and express our appreciation for all that we do have and let that serve as the spring board for the next set of blessings that will surely be coming our way — with joy and gratitude!!
With best wishes for a Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yehuda & Dina Kantor
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