Did you know that here in England the 24th of November 2012 was National Thank You Day? Hope you didn’t miss this important date. I’ve often wondered about important days such as this, as to why there isn’t such a concept in our Jewish calendar? Mothers’ day and Fathers’ day would surely be great assets to the year? As long as you do the right thing on the day then the rest of the year you can put your parents into the sidelines of your life! But this is precisely the problem with Thank You day – Everyday should be thank you day. The organisers discovered that on average a person says thank you about 5000 times a year. This might sound like a lot but in actual fact it amounts to only 14 times a day.
I heard recently about Rabbi Moshe Feinstein [1895-1986] that when travelling on the toll roads in America he used to ask his driver to pay at the kiosk that was manned as opposed to the automatic one! Why? So that he could say thank you to the person in the booth. He said, “Can you imagine how they feel watching car after car prefer to use a machine to pay then to use a real person?”
An integral part of our Davening is saying thank you to Hashem for all that we have. Take the regular morning blessings – we thank Hashem for our eyes, feet, brain, the world that we live in, clothes etc. Every time we go to the toilet we thank Hashem that all is in order and we are able to function normally. Fourteen times?! What a joke to the Jew who davens daily [not on auto-pilot of course!].
I am reminded of a story that I heard from Rabbi Yossi Chazzan. It was his first week as Rov of the Holy Law Shul here in Manchester, and he was visiting a shul member who had been in hospital for several weeks. Rabbi Chazzan turns up on the Urology ward (that’s the ward that deals with the water works!) to witness the following scene. The man he has come to visit is standing by the wall outside the toilet crying his eyes out. In between sobs Rabbi Chazzan can just about make out the words of the blessing of “asher yotzar” [Artscroll Siddur page 14] – where we thank Hashem in detail for our working bodies! Suddenly a nurse comes running in to see what the commotion is all about. The man assures her that all is ok and shows her the blessing that he has just recited.
“It’s the first time in several weeks that I have managed to go the toilet normally and be able to say this blessing” concludes the man.
The nurse takes a look at the blessing and after reading it, she too has tears rolling down her cheeks! Rabbi Chazzan added that he has been back to this ward several times over the years and standing proud on the wall outside the toilet is a “asher yotzar” notice in both English and Hebrew, donated by this man who learnt what it meant to say “asher yotzar” for the first time in weeks!
One of the sacrifices in this week’s Parshah is that of the Todah – the Thanksgiving offering. This offering with which we thank Hashem for overcoming a particular hardship in life is unique amongst the offerings in that it is the only offering which is everlasting. The Medresh tells us, “in the future all prayers and offerings will be annulled but davening to thank Hashem and the thanksgiving offering will never be annulled”.
What is most interesting to note is that the Talmud tells us that in the future all the scriptures of the TaNaCH (The Old Testament) will be annulled with the exception of The Chumash (Five Books of Moses) and the Book of Esther we will read tonight in Shul.
The Chumash I readily understand will never be annulled, but why on earth will the book of Esther survive more than any of the other scriptures. Are the messages of Proverbs, the prayers of Tehilim (Psalms) any less eternal than the Purim Story?
Perhaps what we are being told is the importance of showing and expressing gratitude. Recognition of those who shower upon us kindness and thanking them for doing so is so fundamental that it is eternal. During the times of the Messiah all that will remain for us is to constantly recognise the kindness that Hashem will bestow on us. This same message is one which we are supposed to glean from the Purim story itself. Although Hashem’s name is not written explicitly in the story we are supposed to recognise His guiding hand, and Thank Him!
Thank you for reading!
Good Shabbos
Yaakov
