Va-yeishev: A Three-part Thanksgivukkah Story

This weekend, we begin reading the story of Joseph, and we will continue to read about him for the next four weeks. At the same time, 
we are also about to celebrate the incredible convergence of Chanukah and Thanksgiving - something that hasn't happened since 1888, and may never happen again. On the surface, these are three stories with nothing in common: Dream-interpretation, eight days of oil, and turkey. But you and I both know we can do better than that. If we dig just a little further under the surface, we can indeed find some striking links between Joseph, the Maccabees, and the Pilgrims. And we might even be able to learn something important, which we can bring to this year's Thanksgivukkah holiday dinner table.

Let's work our way backwards. We know what Thanksgiving is all about; it's right there in the name: We give thanks. And no, it isn't about 
thanking turkeys or retailers with amazing, unbeatable, craaazy, (insert superlative) bargains. I think the 'thank you' that we're trying to express is actually two-fold. We thank our ancestors for their bravery in leaving behind oppressive governments, famine, and poverty to seek a better life on an unfamiliar new continent (whether pilgrims in the 1600s or shtetl-dwellers in the 1900s). And we thank God for helping direct their path, and for making all this possible. 

I think you can already see where I'm going with this. Chanukah celebrates pretty much the same things. The Maccabees threw off the yoke of their oppressors, the Assyrian-Greeks, and took back the Temple. We tend to focus on the miraculousness of the Chanukah story - which certainly emphasizes God's role in all the events - but none of it would have happened without 
some brave individuals standing up for freedom, and risking their lives to create a better future for their families and their people. Similarly, the story of Joseph highlights the Divine Providence of Joseph's ability to interpret dreams, endear himself to various people in positions of power, and help bring his family to safety (at least for a couple hundred years...) in Egypt. Once again, God does some of the directing and protecting, but the human being (Joseph) in the story is the one risking his neck and making extraordinary things happen on the ground, in the trenches. All three stories remind us of the partnership between ourselves and God.

All three stories also celebrate freedom, and the importance of feeling gratitude for what we have, and how far we've come. Appreciating the convergence of these three tales is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and so I encourage you to spend a few minutes at your holiday table talking about the lessons of this momentous occasion. Do we treasure the 

freedom(s) that we have? Do we give thanks enough for the bounty on our tables and the bounty in our lives? And do we know where to look to feel God's Presence, subtly hiding behind the actions of individuals all around us, and even behind the choices that we, ourselves, make every day? Yes, it's also a fun day, with new words like 'Thanksgivukkah' and 'menurkey,' and mixed menus highlighting latkes with cranberry sauce and pumpkin-filled sufganiyot. But let's also take advantage of the opportunity to really give thanks. And let us also appreciate the lessons that come from this truly unique holiday, which beautifully brings together the essence of what it means to be both American and Jewish. And then... let's eat!

Photos in this blog post:

1. Image drawn by the incredibly talented artist, Julie Wohl

2. CC image courtesy of Stacy Spensley on Flickr

3. CC image courtesy of hotzeplotz on Flickr

4. Image (once again) drawn by the phenomenally talented (check out her Etsy store page...) Julie Wohl