This week’s Torah portion discusses various types of sacrifices that were brought in the Mishkan, the holy Tabernacle, in the desert. One such sacrifice was the Thanksgiving offering someone who survived a life-threatening crisis would bring to express gratitude to God. Unlike the other sacrifices, the Thanksgiving offering required the person bring 40 loaves of bread. Four of those loaves went to the Kohanim, the priestly caste, but there were 36 loaves of bread left over that had to be eaten that day. Why would God mandate that just for the Thanksgiving offering, 40 loaves be brought and eaten in one day?

Lesson:

Of course, the person who brought the sacrifice couldn’t eat all 36 loaves by himself! Instead, he would invite his community, friends and family to a party and together they would eat everything by the end of the day such that none remained. They would ask the host of the get-together what the occasion was, and he would publicize that God had saved him and he brought a special Thanksgiving offering as a token of gratitude.

God loves us and wants nothing but the best for us. Sometimes He gets our attention in ways that make us realize that God and God alone saved us. For that, we celebrate and publicize the miracle with friends and family.

Interestingly, a famous Torah commentary, the Imrei Emes suggests that every moment, whether we are aware of it or not, God is always saving us. The fact that you can read this means that millions of things are working properly: eyesight, heartbeat, blood flow, digestion, etc. Millions of different things are working together harmoniously and seamlessly such that we can function properly. Our bodies are comprised of various systems of which are comprised of various organs of which are comprised of billions of cells of which are comprised of sub-compartments of cells of which are comprised of billions of atoms. And they are all functioning in a harmonious symphony that makes up our bodies such that we can survive, please God until 120 years old.

This is nothing short of a miracle. However, we take this for granted. Therefore, when someone becomes aware that God saved them, they have a heightened awareness of God’s kindness and love for them. They thank God from the depths of their heart and bring that heightened awareness to their community, friends and family. Because it is not just that God saved that individual who brought that sacrifice, but rather, God is saving all of us, on a moment-to-moment basis, and we publicize and celebrate that miracle together.

Not coincidentally, the word for Jew in Hebrew is Yehudi from the root word hoda’ah, which means ‘to thank’. The essence of a Jew is to express gratitude, to understand that God loves us, sustains us and cares about us. When we publicize this with the world, we express our true essence as a Jew – to acknowledge our Creator – and bring our own Thanksgiving-offering to God.

Exercise: Publicize in your own way a miracle that God did or does for you. It could be as simple as acknowledging that everything is from God when someone asks how you are or sharing a story with those around you about a time that you feel God saved you. Truly feel God’s love for you and feel gratitude towards God and thank Him.