This article was published in the December 2020 issue of The Scroll.
There are certain things we Jews do well. We know how to mourn. We know how to celebrate. That’s because our perspectives on both come from a source of great wisdom: the Torah.
This is the season for celebrations. I am writing this article a mere two days before Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving. Not just the food, although that is usually great, but the opportunity to get together with family and friends and enjoy dinner together is awesome. Of course, with COVID restrictions, our ability to congregate is very limited but at least we can choose to sit down with those we love, either physically or virtually, and spend an evening together. Plus, in sharing a Thanksgiving dinner together, we are celebrating this great country that has granted us true religious freedom. “True religious freedom” means that not only do we have the right to exercise our religion without fear of harm but the actual ability to do so. And yes, I know about the problems of anti-Semitism and how it infects our society from the streets to the hallowed halls of Congress. Still, the United States of America is a country like no other in the world and it has given us Jews a home. To be a Jew in the United States is to have true religious protection and freedoms unlike any other country in the world with the exception of Israel. Anti-Semitism in the United States’ is a problem but, compared to Europe, it is light-years ahead.
Continue reading “Comes the Holidays”