When I was a young, naive and idealistic seminary student, I have accepted (without any questions) that we, Orthodox Jews, do not celebrate Thanksgiving because we do not dedicate only one day a year to give thanks for all the blessings bestowed upon us, and the same goes for Mother's day and Father's day.
As I grew older, the usual questions and re-evaluations followed. Yes, we can not dedicate only one day to give thanks to our Creator and his partners, our parents, but taking one day to make it extra special: what harm in that? The older I get, the more I realize how blessed my life is, and one of the biggest blessings are my parents. I can never thank them enough or come even close to giving them back all they have given me; never the less I try to do something sweet and special for them on Mother's and Father's Day respectively. As for Thanksgiving, it became my special day to give extra thanks for this wonderful country (without traditional dinner, since I hate turkey and sweet potatoes).
A few days ago I was browsing the net for something totally unrelated, but somehow stumbled on an interesting website. The site is called Thegratitudefund.org, and it is created by one of the former Soviet dissidents with a specific purpose to collect funds in order to assist other dissidents who are languishing in poverty in Russia. The site also has sort of a Memorial Wall, listing all the names of deceased dissidents; it also tells when and how they died. As I was reading this list, I got tears in my eyes and shivers down my spine. All those names leaping up at me! The days of my childhood when I used to hear those names on the garbled transmissions from Radio Svoboda! Then my eyes turned to the "death" column. My goodness! How many of them have died in jail or forced labor camps!
As I kept reading and re-reading this Memorial, my thoughts kept turning to two things: my love and unending gratitude for this country and the definition of a hero. These people were definitely not normal when you look at it logically. They lacked something which is inherent to all humans: the instinct for self-preservation. They may have been idealists, but they were definitely not blind or mis-informed. They knew the risks involved; that did not stop them from going against the biggest and the most horrendous suppression machine in the history of mankind, slowly, but successfully eroding this machine in the process. I also kept thinking how wonderful my life is, and how grateful I am that my family escaped when we did without experiencing the most tender mercies of the Soviet regime.
So, in my mind, I raise the biggest glass of the best wine and say this: Thank you, G-d, for this great and wonderful country, for your protection in our darkest hours, and for allowing us to escape with our lives and health intact. Please protect this country from her external enemies and all the traitors and useful idiots who are trying to destroy it from within! Thank You for all the "lunatics" who do not cower in darkness but have the courage to protest the tyranny and fight for every human's right to be free! Please continue to protect them and to protect USA!
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