Guest Contributors

Hodu L'Adonai

By Seth Dralle  | Comments (4) | Posted on November 20, 2007

(Credit to this blog goes to Sarah Croswell, a volunteer for First Fruits of Zion)

I was thinking about the goodness of God this morning and trying out an exercise I read about in Sara Rigler’s new book, “Lights From Jerusalem” on recognizing the good in our lives and being thankful for all that Hashem does. It came to my attention that God moved in two amazing ways in our family just this week. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I want to publicly bless the Lord for His abundant faithfulness.

First, one evening this past week the children were helping load dirty dishes into the dishwasher (No, that’s not the great work of God!). In our house we have the habit to load silverware functional side up, due to the fact that our dishwasher is not very thorough when cleaning. This way more of the dirty parts get exposed to the washing action. Kendall, our six year old, was clearing off the dining room table and bringing the dishes to the sink to be pre-washed (have I mentioned that our dishwasher doesn’t clean very well?) when she tripped over the open dishwasher door. She fell directly over the silverware basket fully loaded with an array of forks and knives standing in ready-to-impale position. She landed on her side with both legs out from under her so that all her weight bore the force of the fall. My husband was standing nearby and grabbed her up with a cat-like reflex as I stood watching the events unfold in slow motion. The horror that was growing in my gut was intensified by her blood-curdling scream and my visualization of the knives buried up to their handles puncturing the kidneys and spraying blood all over the kitchen floor.

But as Kendall grabbed her side and Jeff inspected under her shirt, nothing of the sort materialized. Baruch Hashem! The silverware basket was overturned and utensils were the only thing spilling onto the kitchen floor. No blood. No puncture wounds. Not even a scratch! The area was red, but the skin was in no way damaged. In reflecting back upon this event, I must say that this was no less the hand of God reaching down into the life of our child than the outstretched hand that reached down into the lives of the children of Israel and brought them out of Egypt unscathed! The Lord’s right hand is lifted high; the Lord’s right hand does valiantly!

Two, in a less dramatic, but no less miraculous event, my husband received an unexpected bonus check Thursday at work in the exact amount of the cost of my recent trip to Israel! In cases like this you have two choices: you can choose to chalk it up to a cool coincidence or turn of luck, or you can praise Hashem, bless the Lord and glorify His holy name. I am choosing option two and encourage you to do the same.

This is the season of Thanksgiving, so let’s renew our approach to giving thanks. No act of God is too small to take notice of. If His eyes are on the sparrows and the hairs of our head, then we should be compelled to thank Him for the family of sparrows we observe building a nest in the crevices of a building and for the length, color or the amount of hair (no matter how small) that we have. According to Sarah Rigler we must, “become cognizant of all the rudimentary things we usually take for granted and no matter how much we lack, no matter what difficult times we are passing through, every one of us can find a myriad of things to be grateful for.” If you are reading this blog, then you have been given the gift of sight, reason, breath, functioning organs, electricity, the technology of internet and computers, a home to shelter you or an office in which to work, a chair to sit upon, clothes to cover yourself with (I’m assuming that no one reads this blog...ahem...in the buff!), a community of like minded believers to share things like this with, the freedom to worship on the Sabbath, and the list could go on and on! We have all been given much, and these truly are gifts from our Heavenly Father. We mustn’t take them for granted. We need to be satisfied with the portion we are given.

Let us take to heart and put into practice the teaching of Pirkei Avot: “Who is rich? The one who is happy with his portion,” and the words of the Master: “Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.”

Have a Blessed Thanksgiving!

About the Author: Seth Dralle is the fulfillment and shipping department manager and a research and teaching assistant for FFOZ. He is also a contributor to messiah magazine, the Monthly eRosh and the Torah Club Online Dictionary.

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