Thanksgiving

Shalom Haverim,

“V’akhalta v’SAVATA u-verakhta. And you shall eat, be satisfied and bless God.”

This sentence is a verse from the Torah that teaches us the mitzvah of reciting birkat hamazon, the blessing after a meal. After eating, when we are full, we offer a blessing of thankgiving to God.

The word “savata” means satisfied or full. Imagining tomorrow’s feast, my stomach already feels full! But the word comes to mind this “erev Thanksgiving” because it was featured prominently in last week’s Torah reading. It is the last word describing Abraham before he died- saveiah. In that case, the word saveiah means Abraham was satisfied with his life. Having amassed wealth and honor, having lived a long life and having raised a family, Abraham looked over all with which God had blessed him and was content.

Ramban, the medieval Torah commentator writes on this verse: “Abraham witnessed the fulfillment of all of the desires of his heart and was sated with all good things.” Many people leave this world, Ramban teaches, amassing barely half of their desires. If they have one hundred, they want two; two hundred and they want four. But Abraham was content. In the words of the midrash, “his soul was full and he fell asleep.”

Tomorrow we will gather around a table of food and will eat until we are full (and then likely eat some more!). But before we fall asleep from the tryptophan in the Turkey, we should take time to say in the words of the birkat hamazon, v’akhalta v’savata u-verakhta. Looking around the holiday and table, we should sense not only the fullness in our stomachs but contentment in our souls. For when we take time to give thanks, we will feel our souls sated by God’s blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving,