The Rambam & The Mayflower

November, 2020

Americas First Thanksgiving Drasha

Over the past decade, we have often singled out the week after Thanksgiving to discuss many of the questions that surround this secular day – such as the halachic issues involved in its celebration, the kashrus of turkey, and the etymology/shoresh for the name of this fowl in many laguages –e.g. turkey/indik/ hodu.

This year, I wish to share something both lighter and fascinating.

Sarah Halen (d. 1879) is most famous today for composing Mary Had a Little Lamb. But she is also responsible for making Thanksgiving an accepted national holiday in all states when she convinced Lincoln of its virtue (he also saw it as a way to unify the country after the Civil War).

In one of her many editorials arguing for its permanence in our calendar, she writes, “The noble annual feast day of our Thanksgiving resembles, in some respects, the Feast of Pentecost, which was, in fact, the yearly season of Thanksgiving with the Jews”

While some wish to argue that Thanksgiving is not a religious day –and therefore issues of bchukoseohem lo seileichu do not enter the equation – historically this is grossly inaccurate (I refer only to its religious nature, if this also then makes it assur is up to each reader’s posek).

Indeed, when Washington issued the first such proclamation in 1789, he stated:

“Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of A-mighty Gd, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor…

“…Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be…”

Later presidents would issue similar proclamations, only varying in formalities and dates. In fact, Jefferson was the first president to not issue any such Thanksgiving proclamation…precisely because he did not believe in Divine intervention, R’l!

In fact, the religious connotation to this ‘secular’ holiday goes all the way back to the ‘thanksgiving story’. William Bradford –who arrived on the Mayflower and would serve as the Governor of Plymouth Colony – came with a bible and had the passengers read psalm 107 upon their arrival.

Amazingly, the following Rambam (!) is written in this bible in English:

“And from this Psalme, and this verse of it, the Hebrues have this

    Canon; Foure must confess (unto God) The sick, when he is healed;

    the prisoner when he is released out of bonds; they that goe down to

    sea, when they are come up (to land); and wayfaring men, when they

    are come to the inhabited land. And they must make confession before

    ten men, and two of them wise men, Psal. 107. 32. And the manner of

    confessing and blessing is thus; He standeth among them and blesseth

    the Lord, the King eternal, that bounteously rewardeth good things

    unto sinners, etc. Maimony in Misn. Treat. Of Blessings, chap. 10,

    sect. 8.”!

Mary Hale and William Bradford’s connection to Yiddeshkeit’sthemes were not lost on the public. For many years after Washington passed away, one Orthodox Rabbi’s Thanksgiving sermon was often found re-published in local papers.

Rabbi Gershom Seixes served as the preacher and guide (semicha did not yet fully exist on these shores) to the famed Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue in New York City (a shul still extant today).

We discussed his amazing life and dedication to Torah, as well as to his new country, at great length this past summer.

Leaving aside for now the halachic issues invloved, the very first Thanksgiving after Washington’s Thanksgiving Declaration, Seixes delivered remarks in his shul that were published that year and years after in the local (non-Jewish) papers.

Amazingly, some contemporaneous accounts report that they even omitted tachanun in his shul on that day!

Here is an excerpt from the first famous Thanksgiving Day Sermon, that just happened to be given by a frum leader:

“In considering the duties we owe to ourselves and the community to which we belong, it is necessary that we, each of us in our respective stations, behave in such a manner as to give strength and stability to the laws entered into by our representatives; to consider the burden imposed on those who are appointed to act in the Executive Department; and to contribute, as much as lays within our power, to the support of that government which is founded upon the strict principles of equal liberty and justice…  
 
“If, to seek the peace and prosperity of the city wherein we dwell, be a duty even under bad governments, what must it be when we are situated under the best of Constitutions? It behooves us to unite, with cheerfulness and uprightness, upon all occasions that may occur in the political as well as the moral world, to promote that which has a tendency to the public good. As Jews, we are even more than others, called upon to return thanks to God for placing us in such a country – where we are free to act according to the dictates of conscience, and where no exception is taken from following the principles of our religion.  
 
“…And lastly to conclude, my dear brethren and companions, it is incumbent on us as Jews, in a more special manner, seeing that we are the chosen and special treasure of God, to be more circumspect in our conduct – inasmuch as we are this day, living examples of His Divine Power and Unity. So may we be striking examples to the nations of the earth, as it is mentioned in Sacred Scripture: ‘Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation!” For this purpose, let me then recommend to you a serious consideration of the several duties set forth this Day: to enter into a self-examination; to relinquish your prejudices against each other; to subdue your passions; to live as Jews ought to do – in brotherhood and amity with all our neighbors, ‘to seek peace and pursue it.’ So shall it be well with us, both here and hereafter, which God in His infinite mercy, will grant to us all!”  

Whatever our halachic views toward Thanksgiving may be, the closing sentiment of this drasha is still critical for all of us today.

We must show thanks to Hashem for placing us here, have daily hakaras hatov to our government, and all the while remember that we are still in galus so as to only seek to make a Kiddush Hashem.