An Organic Thanksgiving
D'var
Torah: Toldot
November 28, 2008
Last Friday, I took my shirts to the dry cleaner. After counting the number of shirts once and twice, I took out some collar stays and a pair of cuff links I had left in a shirt and I handed them to the woman behind the counter. She told me that the shirts would not be ready until the following Friday (today) due to the holiday. I said that was fine. She gave me the ticket as she always does. I took it and folded it as I always do and I said Have a Happy Thanksgiving. This Asian woman said to me with apparent surprise “You celebrate Thanksgiving?” I was already on my way out and, as usual in a real rush so I simply said I do and went on my way. She has long been intrigued by my little beanie as she calls it on my head. She is intrigued by my religious convictions, that my holy day is Saturday and not Sunday and that it begins on Friday at sundown. To her, I appear as somewhat the foreigner.
I have written in past years how Thanksgiving is one of my all time favorite holidays. An occupational hazard in the rabbinate is that you have to stay close to home on Jewish holidays. For years, my brother in law was a congregational Rabbi in addition to being president of a national Jewish organization. Thanksgiving was the holiday we could share over the years. This year, my sister and brother in law, nephews and niece came to Ivyland for Thanksgiving. I have been looking forward to this for weeks. My sister offered to make all the food at home in Maryland and transport it across state lines to Pa. I accepted happily until a couple of weeks ago.
I love the theme of this holiday. At the heart of happiness is the ability to feel and express gratitude. On a holiday devoted to giving thanks, we can’t help but feel a sense of happiness. There is so much that troubles us and even plagues us on any given day or days throughout the year, we can lose sight of our many blessings. As I said good morning to Janie Thursday morning I said "we have a lot to be thankful for". Janie agreed and said “we do.”
I am thankful to the Pilgrims who ate Turkey. What if it were a holiday ham? What would we do? Thankfully, there were plenty of wild turkeys running around near Plymouth Rock. Had the pigs been running rampant, we wouldn't be able to fully participate in this holiday. There’s nothing you can do to make a pig Kosher. The unpardoned Turkey however is happy to oblige.
A couple of weeks ago, I sent my sister an e-mail explaining that she could bring all of the fixins and ancillary dishes but I would make the turkey. More than a decade ago, I would make the turkey every year and developed quite a talent and my sweet potato pie with kosher marshmallows though my cooking skills have atrophied over the past decade. Each November, I would reserve a fresh Kosher Empire turkey. Most important was that it was fresh. This year, I had a different idea.
Over the past couple of months, I have begun to change our dietary habits at home. We’re still Kosher but I have tried to eliminate chemicals and preservatives from our diet, things like bleached white flour, processed foods and anything that has been sprayed with pesticides or injected with antibiotics and hormones. The goal is to ingest the most healthy and least contaminated foods as possible. Additionally, after seeing an egg factory on a Kibbutz in Israel where the sight was far worse than the stench, I no longer wanted to eat eggs of caged hens who are treated more like machines than living creatures. The hens have to be injected with all kinds of drugs because a hen can get sick when it is living with thousands of other hens indoors, never seeing the light of day and never breathing fresh air. I now look for eggs from free range, organically fed chickens and free range organic chickens. That’s the kind of turkey I wanted to have for Thanksgiving this year. Fresh would be best, but if I had to compromise, I would eat a frozen Kosher organic turkey. How would I go about finding such a bird. It’s as simple as Google and I quickly found www.wiseorganicpastures.com. I ordered one on line and it arrived on time for the big day. These products have two Kosher certifications, are fed only orgainc feed grown without pesticides, given no antibiotics, are free range with access to outdoors and raised humanely by family farmers.
It is no coincidence that I write about food and cooking this Shabbat. Our Parsha which deals with the two sons of Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Esau, is one of the few that deals with cooking and food preparation. Esau one day is so utterly famished he feels like he’s going to die. Esau is known for over reacting at times. Jacob takes advantage of Esau’s hysteria and tells him that he will share the food he was preparing, a lentil stew and bread in exchange for the blessing of the first born which was rightfully the first born twin Esau’s.
There is an interesting Hebrew connection to Thanksgiving and the turkey. A Turkey in Hebrew is tarnegol hodu but we normally drop the first word and just call the Turkey hodu. The word Hodu in Hebrew also means Give Thanks. In the psalms we find Hodu Ladoshem Kee Tov - Give Thanks to G-d for G-d’s goodness. The turkey and giving thanks is the very same word in Hebrew. How could this lady at the cleaners not think that a man with a beanie doesn’t celebrate this holiday. It is interwoven in the very fabric of the holy tongue.
I’m happy to report that the turkey came out great along with the rest of the meal and best of all was having family together around the table. I hope you enjoyed your turkey. Immeasurably more important, I hope you enjoyed those with whom you are shared this great American holiday. I hope you could spend the day feeling thankful. In spite of whatever disturbs us and because there is much that might trouble us, I hope you have a deep reservoir of thanks to offer.
Enjoy the rest of the Thanksgiving weekend and
Shabbat Shalom,
