Among the many sacrifices described in Parshat Tzav this week is the Thanksgiving Offering (“zevach todah”) which is described as one of the sacrifices of well-being (“zivchey shelamim“). The Torah gives few details about the specific functions of the Thanksgiving Offering; the Talmud (Berachot 54b) surmises that they were offered as expressions of gratitude in response to safe passage through dangerous circumstances. (Some commentators believe that the Gomel Blessing which is recited during the Torah service is a direct outgrowth of the Talmud’s discussion of Thanksgiving Offering.)
Gratitude has been considered to be an important spiritual concept by religious traditions from time immemorial. Judaism is replete with expressions of gratitude: the Shabbat and holiday liturgy includes numerous Psalms of Thanksgiving. Modeh Ani, the blessing Jews are prescribed to utter upon awakening every morning, is statement of gratitude for the very breath we breathe. The Blessing of Thanksgiving (“Birkat Hoda’ah”) which is recited during the Amidah prayer is as powerful a liturgical statement of gratitude as we are ever likely to find:
…we thank you for our lives entrusted to your hand, our souls placed in your care, for your miracles that greet us every day, and for your wonders and the good things that are with us every hour, morning, noon and night…
Brother David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk who has written extensively about the spiritual meaning of gratitude, suggests that gratefulness is a spiritual attitude to be cultivated and lived. He describes gratefulness as the moment of awakening to a true gift: the “full appreciation of something altogether undeserved, utterly gratuitous.” In other words, we experience true gratefulness when we accept the gift of life fully – without discrimination or reservation.
Of course, “living gratefully” can be particularly challenging during those inevitable moments when we are feeling the least grateful – when pain or sorrow invariably enter our lives. It is especially during the more difficult times, Brother Steindl-Rast suggests, that we must find the means to be the live gratefully:
A grateful person trusts enough to give life another chance, to stay open for surprises. Since you are doing this, you are grateful, whether or not you can feel it. Like a ship in dense fog, you will have to go on automatic pilot. But the fog will lift. Better still, your going forward gets you out of the fog. As you stay open in grateful trust, grateful feelings will start to bud.
Times that challenge us physically, emotionally, and spiritually may make it almost impossible for us to feel grateful. Yet, we can decide to live gratefully, courageously open to life in all its fullness. By living the gratefulness we don’t feel, we begin to feel the gratefulness we live.
When we view gratitude as somehow dependant upon a the receipt of a specific gift, we will inevitably come to regard it as an emotion that will ebb and flow depending upon how grateful we happen to feel. But cultivating gratitude means training ourselves to greet each day in the spirit of gratitude – even when we don’t happen to feel particularly grateful. Indeed, to experience this level of gratefulness is to understand the true meaning of the Thanksgiving Offering.
Postscript: Did you know that scientists are increasingly discovering the health benefits of living gratefully? Click here for more info!
Thank you for this post on gratitude. It is something incredibly important to my spiritual existence. When my gratitude ebbs then I definitely see this as a spiritual issue. Sometimes during those ebbs I can hear my wise friend reminding me, “don’t forget to breath.” Then I become grateful for each breath.
I think that one of the purposes of the thanksgiving offering is that the ritual makes what might otherwise have been an individual expression of gratitude into a communal expression of gratitude. The “we” language of the Blessing of Thanksgiving retains that aspect.
I am grateful for the opportunity to offer my belated thanks during Pesach since I was stuffing my face with food on Thanksgiving and I didn’t want to talk with my mouth full (as my mother taught me manners well, but I seemingly was slow on the uptake about public expressions of gratitude) and, anyway, I now publicly admit that I missed the significance of the moment, so Thank God I have another chance to thank … the source for all wonders in the world for which thanks is due and should be expressed (except by Benedictine Monks who would break their vows of silence and get into trouble).
Shabbat Shalom
Happy Pesach
Thanks O’Million (I missed St. Patty’s Day, too)
Jordan Marg O’lis
Gratitude is just one of the feelings with which we ought to greet each day. We also need self-confidence, so that no matter what the day brings “I will be able to face it and handle it”. And we also need a sense of social connection so that we are aware of our fellow human beings and their needs.
I really think that accessing “gratitude,” within our experience is so key to happiness and real fufillment. Gratitude is a deeply connected kind of feeling. Pam and I call it “the appreciation factor.” It often gets lost in our scurrying about and worrying about things big and small. It is easy to lose track of feeling grateful in the regular-ness of living. Making sacrificies helped remind the ancient ancestors of being grateful, but for them it was so so motivated by fear. Perhaps we can be more free of this fear, even though we know life can randomly be horrible at times. We Jews really know a lot about that. At Pesach, like most of our holidays, (including Shabbat), it is such a great reminder to stay tuned into gratitude and appreication as an opening to connection, and to the joy of the moment. It’s an everyday kind of miracle when that can happen.
Josh Mark
The risk with focusing on individual gratitude is that it can easily slip into self-satisfaction and smugness. This reminds me of being exhorted in grade school to be “grateful” I was born in the U.S., and not one of those other godawful places that didn’t have all of our advantages and liberties etc.
When I discuss gratitude with my daughter, I try to include the notion that in appreciating what we have, we should also think of ways we can share these blessings with the wider world.
For me the most perfect expression of universal gratitude is that great Louis Armstrong song:
I see trees of green, red roses too
I watch them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself what a wonderful world
I hear babies cry I watch them grow
And they’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know
And I think to myself oh what a wonderful world
This is a really beautiful post. Today I am reeling from a recent personal disaster and this post is shalom.