I was thrilled to realize that tonight starts a new hebrew month, Cheshvan. How did I know? Because my fabulous rabbi sent out this month’s Middot Study Guide! As my title probably gave away, we’re focusing on embodying gratitude this month. Rabbi Judy pointed out that this is a great month to focus on gratitude because there are no festivals this month besides Shabbat.
As per usual, the middah of gratitude seems eerily aligned with my current state. I’m fatigued from studying, got a little hangry (hungry-angry), and have a little bit of a short fuse today. Then I pop open my email and here is my rabbi reminding me to be have gratitude!
The hebrew word for gratitude is hikarat hatov. Literally translated, it means “recognizing the good.” Recognizing the good is imbedded in everything around me right now. There is even a Facebook event going on right now called “Forty Days of Thankfulness.” It’s incredible how much people around me are full of gratitude. We inherently crave to be thankful, but it’s not that easy in our world. Our world is geared towards constantly striving to be more, greater, better. Or worse yet, we are told to have more, have greater, have better.
The part of this month’s middah study guide that stuck out particularly to me was this gem:
If the only prayer you ever said was “thank you,” that would be enough.
-Meister Ekhart
The simplicity of the quote is breathtaking. If all you say is thank you, have gratitude for that thank you. It’s spectacular. How easy is it to stop in the middle of a pity party and say “thank you?” I tried this today. I was sitting around being grumpy and…without even knowing why I was saying thank you, I said it. Out loud. At a coffee shop. Aside from people thinking I’m crazy, I was really surprised by how my entire body felt differently once I said it. By saying “thank you,” my mind immediately started tallying things I am grateful for.
It also reminds me of this quote by S.Y. Agnon, a Jewish recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature. He is quoted as wisely stating:
Sometimes small things lead to great joys.
As they should. The littlest things are worth celebrating over. I could afford to buy a latte today. The weather is gorgeous. Someone held the door for me. What a gift it all is. The great Abraham Heschel is quoted as saying:
Remember that life is a celebration or can be a celebration. One of the most important things is to teach man how to celebrate.
Celebrating is part of giving thanks. It’s traditional that Jews recite the prayer Modeh Ani each morning before leaving bed. Modeh Ani simply means “I give thanks.” I think that I’m going to try reciting this at times of joy and distress. I want to see if it changes anything in my life.
In the meantime, it helps for me to count my blessings. As my therapist likes to say “notice your likes.” By this she means, notice the things you like and really relish in them. One of the most striking passages in the prayer service for me at services is a quote about noticing how miraculous the world is around us. It reads:
Days pass and the years vanish and we walk sightless among miracles. Lord, fill our eyes with seeing and our minds with knowing. Let there be moments when your Presence, like lightning, illumines the darkness in which we walk. Help us to see, wherever we gaze, that the bush burns, unconsumed. And we, clay touched by God, will reach out for holiness and exclaim in wonder, “How filled with awe is this place and we did not know it.”
I hope to slow down and notice the beauty around me. I hope to really marinate in my gratitude for everything I have. I hope to find the blessings in what I don’t have, and be grateful for that too.
With gratitude for my dog,
coffee,
and a few good books.
And You Shall Love 