(1) When God began to create heaven and earth—
(27) And God created humankind in the divine image,
creating it in the image of God—
creating them male and female.
(7) God יהוה formed the Human from the soil’s humus, blowing into his nostrils the breath of life: the Human became a living [& conscious, self-reflective and potentially creative/giving] being.
Our purpose is to flourish and to help others flourish.
Rabbi Hutner - bestowal of hesed begets hesed, gratitude (both appreciation and recognizing one's debt that must be paid back) inclines one towards generosity...as God gave so you shall give...
Functional Jewish spiritulity:
How will we repay the bounty we have been blessed with?
How will we express it?
His steadfast love is eternal!”
for all His bounties to me?
and invoke the name of the LORD.
WE OWE A DEBT OF GRATITUDE
These thanks must be rendered in the presence of ten people, of whom two are sages, as [implied by Psalms 107:32]: "They will exalt Him in the congregation of the people and they will praise Him in the seat of the elders."
How does one give thanks and what blessing should he recite? He should stand in the midst of the [abovementioned] company and say:
Blessed are You, God, our Lord, King of the universe, who bestows benefits upon the culpable, who has bestowed all goodness upon me.
Those who hear should respond: May He who granted you beneficence continue to bestow good upon you forever.
and pay your vows to the Most High.
In his eighty-first letter to Lucilius, Seneca writes under the heading “On Benefits”:
You complain that you have met with an ungrateful person. If this is your first experience of that sort, you should offer thanks either to your good luck or to your caution. In this case, however, caution can effect nothing but to make you ungenerous. For if you wish to avoid such a danger, you will not confer benefits; and so, that benefits may not be lost with another man, they will be lost to yourself.
It is better, however, to get no return than to confer no benefits. Even after a poor crop one should sow again; for often losses due to continued barrenness of an unproductive soil have been made good by one year’s fertility. In order to discover one grateful person, it is worth while to make trial of many ungrateful ones.
True generosity, Seneca argues, is measured not by the ends of the act but by the spirit from which it springs. He writes:
Benefits, as well as injuries, depend on the spirit… Our feeling about every obligation depends in each case upon the spirit in which the benefit is conferred; we weigh not the bulk of the gift, but the quality of the good-will which prompted it. So now let us do away with guess-work; the former deed was a benefit, and the latter, which transcended the earlier benefit, is an injury. The good man so arranges the two sides of his ledger that he voluntarily cheats himself by adding to the benefit and subtracting from the injury.
The wise man… enjoys the giving more than the recipient enjoys the receiving… None but the wise man knows how to return a favour. Even a fool can return it in proportion to his knowledge and his power; his fault would be a lack of knowledge rather than a lack of will or desire.
Anyone who receives a benefit more gladly than he repays it is mistaken. By as much as he who pays is more light-hearted than he who borrows, by so much ought he to be more joyful who unburdens himself of the greatest debt — a benefit received — than he who incurs the greatest obligations. For ungrateful men make mistakes in this respect also: they have to pay their creditors both capital and interest, but they think that benefits are currency which they can use without interest. So the debts grow through postponement, and the later the action is postponed the more remains to be paid. A man is an ingrate if he repays a favour without interest.
At the heart of his message is the insistence that true generosity is not transactional and that gratitude, in turn, ought to be calibrated to the intrinsic rewards of the generous act rather than to the veneer of a transactional favor:
We should try by all means to be as grateful as possible. For gratitude is a good thing for ourselves, in a sense in which justice, that is commonly supposed to concern other persons, is not; gratitude returns in large measure unto itself. There is not a man who, when he has benefited his neighbour, has not benefited himself, — I do not mean for the reason that he whom you have aided will desire to aid you, or that he whom you have defended will desire to protect you, or that an example of good conduct returns in a circle to benefit the doer, just as examples of bad conduct recoil upon their authors, and as men find no pity if they suffer wrongs which they themselves have demonstrated the possibility of committing; but that the reward for all the virtues lies in the virtues themselves. For they are not practised with a view to recompense; the wages of a good deed is to have done it. I am grateful, not in order that my neighbour, provoked by the earlier act of kindness, may be more ready to benefit me, but simply in order that I may perform a most pleasant and beautiful act; I feel grateful, not because it profits me, but because it pleases me.
(10) When you have eaten your fill, give thanks to your God יהוה for the good land given to you.
(א) נוֹדֶה לְּךָ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ עַל שֶׁהִנְחַלְתָּ לַאֲבוֹתֵינוּ אֶרֶץ חֶמְדָּה טוֹבָה וּרְחָבָה וְעַל שֶׁהוֹצֵאתָנוּ יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם וּפְדִיתָנוּ מִבֵּית עֲבָדִים וְעַל בְּרִיתְךָ שֶׁחָתַמְתָּ בִּבְשָׂרֵנוּ וְעַל תּוֹרָתְךָ שֶׁלִּמַּדְתָּנוּ וְעַל חֻקֶּיךָ שֶׁהוֹדַעְתָּנוּ וְעַל חַיִּים חֵן וָחֶסֶד שֶׁחוֹנַנְתָּנוּ, וְעַל אֲכִילַת מָזוֹן שָׁאַתָּה זָן וּמְפַרְנֵס אוֹתָנוּ תָּמִיד, בְּכָל יוֹם וּבְכָל עֵת וּבְכָל שָׁעָה.
(1) We thank thee, O Lord our God, because thou didst give as an heritage unto our fathers a desirable, good and ample land, and because thou didst bring us forth, O Lord our God, from the land of Egypt, and didst deliver us from the house of bondage; as well as for thy covenant which thou hast sealed in our flesh, thy Law which thou hast taught us, thy statutes which thou hast made known unto us, the life, grace and lovingkindness which thou hast vouchsafed unto us, and for the food wherewith thou dost constantly feed and sustain us on every day, in every season, at every hour.
(ה) וְעַל הַכֹּל יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ אֲנַחְנוּ מוֹדִים לָךְ וּמְבָרְכִים אוֹתָךְ, יִתְבָּרַךְ שִׁמְךָ בְּפִי כָּל חַי תָּמִיד לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד, כַּכָּתוּב: וְאָכַלְתָּ וְשָׂבַעְתָּ, וּבֵרַכְתָּ אֶת יְיָ אֱלֹהֶיךָ עַל הָאָרֶץ הַטּוֹבָה אֲשֶּׁר נָתַן לָךְ. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ, עַל הָאָרֶץ וְעַל הַמָּזוֹן.
(5) For all this, O Lord our God, we thank and bless thee, blessed be thy name by the mouth of all living continually and for ever, even as it is written, And thou shalt eat and be satisfied, and thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. Blessed art thou, O Lord, for the land and for the food.
(א) מוֹדִים אֲנַחְנוּ לָךְ. שָׁאַתָּה הוּא יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ וֵאלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵינוּ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד.
(ב) צוּר חַיֵּינוּ. מָגֵן יִשְׁעֵנוּ אַתָּה הוּא לְדוֹר וָדוֹר:
(ג) נוֹדֶה לְּךָ וּנְסַפֵּר תְּהִלָּתֶךָ
(ד) עַל חַיֵּינוּ הַמְּסוּרִים בְּיָדֶךָ. וְעַל נִשְׁמוֹתֵינוּ הַפְּקוּדוֹת לָךְ. וְעַל נִסֶּיךָ שֶׁבְּכָל יוֹם עִמָּנוּ. וְעַל נִפְלְאוֹתֶיךָ וְטוֹבוֹתֶיךָ שֶׁבְּכָל עֵת. עֶרֶב וָבֹקֶר וְצָהֳרָיִם:
(ה) הַטּוֹב כִּי לֹא כָלוּ רַחֲמֶיךָ. וְהַמְרַחֵם כִּי לֹא תַמּוּ חֲסָדֶיךָ. מֵעוֹלָם קִוִּינוּ לָךְ:
(ז) מודים דרבנן:
(ח) מוֹדִים אֲנַחְנוּ לָךְ. שָׁאַתָּה הוּא יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ וֵאלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵינוּ. אֱלֹהֵי כָל בָּשָׂר. יוֹצְרֵנוּ יוֹצֵר בְּרֵאשִׁית. בְּרָכוֹת וְהוֹדָאוֹת לְשִׁמְךָ הַגָּדוֹל וְהַקָּדוֹשׁ. עַל שֶׁהֶחֱיִיתָנוּ וְקִיַּמְתָּנוּ. כֵּן תְּחַיֵּנוּ וּתְקַיְּמֵנוּ. וְתֶאֱסוֹף גָּלֻיּוֹתֵינוּ לְחַצְרוֹת קָדְשֶׁךָ. לִשְׁמוֹר חֻקֶּיךָ. וְלַעֲשׂוֹת רְצוֹנֶךָ. וּלְעָבְדְךָ בְּלֵבָב שָׁלֵם. עַל שֶׁאֲנַחְנוּ מוֹדִים לָךְ. בָּרוּךְ אֵל הַהוֹדָאוֹת:
(א) עָלֵינוּ לְשַׁבֵּחַ לַאֲדון הַכּל. לָתֵת גְּדֻלָּה לְיוצֵר בְּרֵאשִׁית. שֶׁלּא עָשנוּ כְּגויֵי הָאֲרָצות. וְלא שמָנוּ כְּמִשְׁפְּחות הָאֲדָמָה. שֶׁלּא שם חֶלְקֵנוּ כָּהֶם וְגורָלֵנוּ כְּכָל הֲמונָם: שֶׁהֵם מִשְׁתַּחֲוִים לְהֶבֶל וְרִיק וּמִתְפַּלְלִים אֶל אֵל לא יושִׁיעַ: וַאֲנַחְנוּ כּורְעִים וּמִשְׁתַּחֲוִים וּמודִים לִפְנֵי מֶלֶךְ מַלְכֵי הַמְּלָכִים הַקָּדושׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא: שֶׁהוּא נוטֶה שָׁמַיִם וְיוסֵד אָרֶץ. וּמושַׁב יְקָרו בַּשָּׁמַיִם מִמַּעַל. וּשְׁכִינַת עֻזּו בְּגָבְהֵי מְרומִים: הוּא אֱלהֵינוּ אֵין עוד. אֱמֶת מַלְכֵּנוּ. אֶפֶס זוּלָתו. כַּכָּתוּב בְּתורָתו. וְיָדַעְתָּ הַיּום וַהֲשֵׁבתָ אֶל לְבָבֶךָ. כִּי ה' הוּא הָאֱלהִים בַּשָּׁמַיִם
(ב) מִמַּעַל וְעַל הָאָרֶץ מִתָּחַת. אֵין עוד:
(ג) עַל כֵּן נְקַוֶּה לְּךָ ה' אֱלהֵינוּ לִרְאות מְהֵרָה בְּתִפְאֶרֶת עֻזֶּךָ. לְהַעֲבִיר גִּלּוּלִים מִן הָאָרֶץ. וְהָאֱלִילִים כָּרות יִכָּרֵתוּן. לְתַקֵּן עולָם בְּמַלְכוּת שַׁדַּי. וְכָל בְּנֵי בָשר יִקְרְאוּ בִשְׁמֶךָ לְהַפְנות אֵלֶיךָ כָּל רִשְׁעֵי אָרֶץ. יַכִּירוּ וְיֵדְעוּ כָּל יושְׁבֵי תֵבֵל. כִּי לְךָ תִּכְרַע כָּל בֶּרֶךְ. תִּשָּׁבַע כָּל לָשׁון. לְפָנֶיךָ ה' אֱלהֵינוּ יִכְרְעוּ וְיִפּלוּ. וְלִכְבוד שִׁמְךָ יְקָר יִתֵּנוּ. וִיקַבְּלוּ כֻלָּם אֶת על מַלְכוּתֶךָ. וְתִמְלךְ עֲלֵיהֶם מְהֵרָה לְעולָם וָעֶד. כִּי הַמַּלְכוּת שֶׁלְּךָ הִיא וּלְעולְמֵי עַד תִּמְלךְ בְּכָבוד. כַּכָּתוּב בְּתורָתֶךָ. ה' יִמְלךְ לְעולָם וָעֶד: וְנֶאֱמַר. וְהָיָה ה' לְמֶלֶךְ עַל כָּל הָאָרֶץ. בַּיּום הַהוּא יִהְיֶה ה' אֶחָד וּשְׁמו אֶחָד:
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From: The Open Siddur Project A Psalm of Gratitude By Ben Aronin on being raised from the depths of despair to joy and from darkness to light. |
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O God, I am amazed at Thy most awesome ways! I cannot fathom all the wonders that have now been shown to me, When I was a child I saw the beauty of each blade of grass And hugged the warm earth, loving Thee |
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And Thou wast everywhere, — In the voices of my parents at dawn In the silent whiteness of the snow In my dreams and in my waking I clung to Thee |
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But as I grew to youth the Tree of Knowledge beckoned And I sought it with such eagerness That my daily prayer to Thee became a habit And Thy Book a friendly volume to be opened at infrequent intervals Unless reminded by my learned father |
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For comfort’s harbor I sought mother; For poetry — my father And Thee I took for granted as one takes the landscape With scarce half a glance. |
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Thus all unknowing I shut out the light, For Thou alone art the sole source of light, And lamps of levity are often darker than the night they would illumine And darkness came upon me More deadly than the plague of Egypt |
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I prayed to cease, — to be no more, And in my anguish, cried: “O God, take me hence Lest I become a burden to my wife and children And, by my sadness and despair, darken the lives of others!” |
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I did not know how much the human heart can bear. And yet there was no reasoned cause for all the nameless fears That filled my soul with panic For Thou hadst heaped on me so many Blessings. |
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I was ashamed of my great fear and of my weakness And stalked like an automaton about my duties Twisting my face into a smile — Seeking by day and night and vainly, — the oblivion of sleep or death But stretching not my hand against my life For then I would endorse complete surrender To all my pupils, children, and their children |
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And so I lived throughout a thousand hells of my own building With one dim spark of hope — That just as night had came so suddenly upon my hitherto rejoicing soul The dawn would break as suddenly If only I would bear and struggle on. |
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The long long months — and still no light, And then a morning came that sang to me “Arise!” I stared all unbelieving at the skies And from my heart I longed to pour All of the Psalms of David — those and more! |
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The night is over and the day is radiant Each ordinary thing glows with a holy fire Again I work — but joyously, Again create, — aspire. |
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I do not know the reason or the cause Of all that happened to this battered soul of mine Perhaps — to know compassion better Perhaps to cheer another and to hearten him with the firm knowledge That all dark plagues and fears and agony Will end, and leave a soul reborn More gloriously awake to life and love, Awake to Thee! |
Aronin’s reference to “the beauty of each blade of grass,” invoked in the first stanza, is a powerful one given that the mitsvah of bal tashḥit was once emphasized to children through stories concerning not idly plucking vegetation — blades of grass and leaves of trees. Aronin is also remembered by his secretary Mrs. Shirr, for saying “I believe God knows every leaf that falls.” That Ben received a ḥassidic appreciation for the vitality of all living creatures including vegetation seems quite plausible as Aronin’s father Simon (1877-1938), also referred to in the poem, “studied with Rabbi [Shalom DovBer] Schneerson in the Lubavitcher Yeshiva” (Jeffrey Conn. “Ben Aronin, Man, Author, and Teacher,” Masters thesis: Spertus College, 1990, p.5). The sixth rebbe of ḤaBaD (Yosef Yitshak Schneerson) recounts his father Shalom DovBer (the fifth rebbe of ḤaBaD) teaching him this very lesson. The first Lubavitch yeshivah, Tomchei Tmimim founded by Shalom DovBer, opened its doors in 1897 in the town of Lubavitch, in those days part of White Russia, Belarus.
Both Simon and his wife, Rose, came from “Dokschitz in the Vilna Region,” a town north of Minsk. Simon’s father, R’ Aryeh Loeb Aronin (1849-1931), was a student of Rabbi Yitzhok Elkanon Spector. After serving as rabbi in both Barisev and Krasnaluk, Lithuania, Aryeh Loeb emigrated first to Baltimore and then to Sheboygan, Wisconsin where Simon and Rose eventually joined them in 1902. The childhood reminiscence of Ben Aronin in this poem is of his childhood in Sheboygan, Green Bay, and Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.
Undated, the poem must have been written after 1944 when Ben Aronin turned 40 years old and made a dramatic shift in his career from a criminal lawyer to a children’s educator and author. This article from the Chicago Tribune in 1944 documents his career change. Ben’s reference to blades of grass might also recall Walt Whitman’s Blades of Grass; Whitman served as the subject of Aronin’s last novel, a work of secular historical fiction, Walt Whitman’s Secret (1955).
(א) אם על תודה יקריבנו וגו' (ויקרא ז יב), ראה היאך הקב"ה סולח לעונותיהם של ישראל, ומה היו מקריבין להקב"ה, והקריב על זבח התודה, אלא אמר הקב"ה מי שיש לו פר יביא פר, ומי שיש לו איל יביא איל, מי שיש לו שה יביא שה, מי שיש לו יונה יביא יונה, ומי שאין לו אלא אחד מכל אלו יביא סולת, ומי שאין לו סולת ולא כלום יביא דברים, שנאמר קחו עמכם דברים [ושוב אל ה'] (הושע יד ג), לכך נאמר אם על תודה וגו'.
(1) (Lev. 7:12:) IF HE OFFERS IT FOR A THANKSGIVING OFFERING, etc. See how the Holy One forgives the sins of Israel. So what did they offer to the Holy One? "He shall offer on his sacrifice thanksgiving" (ibid.). The Holy One, who is blessed, said: Whoever has a bull, let him bring a bull; whoever has a calf let him bring a calf; whoever has a lamb, let him bring a lamb; whoever has a dove, let him bring a dove. Whoever has only one of all these [i.e., is very poor], let him bring fine flour. And whoever has neither flour nor anything else, let him bring words. As it is stated, "Take with you words [and return to the Lord] (Hosea 14:3). It is therefore stated [here], "If he offers it as a thanksgiving."