Puritans, Thanksgiving and the Old Testament

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

The passengers on the Mayflower who were Puritans were a group of English Protestants known as Separatists, or "Saints":The Puritans wanted to establish a new church in the New World where they could practice their religion without interference from the Church of England (Yes, the Church of England is now called the Episcopal Church in the United States, and its members are called Episcopalians:). They believed the Church of England needed reform, but they chose to remain within the church. 

37 of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower were Separatists living in Leiden, Netherlands. The Mayflower set sail from Plymouth, England on September 6, 1620. The adult male passengers signed the Mayflower Compact on November 11, 1620 to establish order and civil society while waiting for a new patent to settle in New England. The passengers became the settlers of Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts. The colonists were unprepared for the harsh New England winters, and about half of them died in the first winter.  The Puritan colonists of Plymouth were not called "Pilgrims" until the early 19th century. 

Traveling with the Pilgrims were about two dozen non-separatist Puritans, whom the Pilgrims sometimes called “strangers,” a few servants, and a crew of 30 sailors — 102 passengers in all. After a rough crossing, the Mayflower arrived at the tip of Cape Cod on November 10, 1620.

To understand what motivated their journey, historians point back a century to King Henry VIII of England. When the Roman Catholic pope refused to annul Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Henry severed relations with Rome and formed the Church of England, naming himself its supreme leader. Membership in the new church was mandatory.                               

                  First Thanksgiving in new country to become USA later

Puritans were readers of the Old Testament.  The Puritans were a Christian group that drew much of their ideology from the Bible, and their relationship to the Old Testament was complex: The Puritans saw themselves as God's chosen people, similar to the Israelites in the Bible. They believed they had escaped oppression in Europe and settled in America, their Promised Land, just as the Israelites escaped captivity in Egypt and settled in Canaan. Puritans believed that biblical types could be used to interpret their own experiences and historical situation. For example, they could identify with biblical figures like Adam, Noah, or Job to understand their own spiritual struggles. Puritans believed that their community was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, and identified themselves as the "New Israel".

They read about the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.  According to the Old Testament, the Jewish holiday most closely associated with giving thanks that Puritans would have referenced is Sukkot (also known as the Feast of Tabernacles), which is a harvest festival celebrated in the fall and considered a time to give thanks for the bounty of the land; many believe the Pilgrims modeled their Thanksgiving celebration after Sukkot. Sukkot is primarily found in the book of Leviticus, specifically in Leviticus 23:33-43, where the instructions for celebrating the Feast of Booths (Sukkot) are detailed.                                                           

       Decorating the family Sukkah before the attack that infamous Day Oct. 7th
                                                                     Sukkot's last day of celebration in 2023 was October 7th, the day that goes 

down in infamy, being young dancing people outside were slaughtered by Hamas 

terrorists, starting war events not wanted or dreamed of.  

Keeping of Sukkot is detailed in the Hebrew Bible (Nehemiah 8:13–18, Zechariah 14:16–19 and Leviticus 23:34–44); the Mishnah (Sukkah 1:1–5:8); the Tosefta (Sukkah 1:1–4:28); and the Jerusalem Talmud (Sukkah 1a–) and Babylonian Talmud (Sukkah 2a–56b).  Jews consider the 1st 5 books to have been written by Moses.  It's also called the Pentateuch by Christians;  Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.  This had been written in Hebrew, except solitary words in Genesis and Jeremiah and a few chapters in Ezra and Daniel which were written in Aramaic.  Puritans had to rely on translations of that day.  Only Jerome's Latin Vulgate of 4th century was available at this time for the Puritans.  It had been adopted by the Catholic Church.  Moses Arragel wrote it in Spanish but not until 1422.  

Puritans established grammar schools to prepare students for college and the ministry, and to read classical authors in their original languages. These schools emphasized Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.  Judah Monis, an Italian Jew, was appointed as a Hebrew instructor at Harvard College in 1720. Monis taught Hebrew for 38 years.  Puritans read the Hebrew scriptures as the Christian Old Testament. Some Puritans studied the Jewish Kabbalah to better understand the Hebrew Bible.  The Puritans believed it was important to be able to read and understand the Bible. They established schools to educate the children of the colony, and the "Old Deluder Law" required towns to pay for teachers and send children to school.

The Puritan era is generally considered to have ended by 1740, but there is no consensus on the exact date. The term "Puritan" was used to describe New Englanders well past this time, even though the label was no longer accurate. 

 

       1621 Thanksgiving Day with the help of the Indians, or they might have starved to death:  A depiction of the first Thanksgiving in 1621. Image by J.L.G. Ferris/LOC/Creative Commons, a holiday with big differences from Sukkot, however:  Pastor John Robinson was the Puritan leader in Holland who encouraged his flock to board the Mayflower.  He didn't leave, but his son did, later on.  New England is loaded with Robinsons, who mostly came from Ireland very early on.    

1.  First, the Pilgrims did not believe in fixed holidays. In the words of Jonathan Sarna, professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University: “If it was a good season, they would announce a thanksgiving, but it was not Sukkot.”

2. Second, there was a crucial element of Sukkot the pilgrims neglected — and that was to build Sukkot. Neither do we have any record of them shaking lulav and etrog.

3.   Third, the Pilgrims were Christians. For them, the covenant at Calvary, sealed in the blood of Jesus, would have negated the covenant at Sinai. While they might have found spiritual inspiration in what they called the “Old Testament,” they would not have observed any Jewish rituals and certainly would not have observed any Jewish holidays.

So, was Thanksgiving the American Sukkot? Probably not.  Just like Chanukah and Christmas are not the same this year at all even though both fall on December 25th this year.  One's on a lunar calendar and the other on the solar calendar, which is our universal calendar except for Jewish holidays.  

However,  Native American cultures traditionally expressed gratitude to the Creator or the natural world for the food they harvested, often incorporating prayers and rituals of thanks before consuming meals or during harvest celebrations, signifying a deep respect for the land and its bounty; this practice of giving thanks was a central part of their daily lives, not just on a specific holiday like Thanksgiving as it is understood today.  Many Native American tribes viewed the natural world as sacred and believed that giving thanks to the source of life was essential.

Resource:

https://www.voanews.com/a/6199723.html

https://religionnews.com/2021/11/24/thanksgiving-sukkot/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukkot#:~:text=Keeping%20of%20Sukkot%20is%20detailed,(Sukkah%202a%E2%80%9356b).

Sukkot, That Wonderful Holiday Observed Completely in Israel More Than USA Except By Synagogues

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                      

    In Israel we used different rugs for hanging sides on the Sukkah.  

Sukkot translated means "Tabernacles" ( a fixed or movable habitation, typically of light construction.): This is a Torah Commanded Holiday.  Moses said to celebrate and remember how we lived in these booths during the Exodus for 40 years.  Religious Jews remember the best, reading about it in (Lev. 23: 42).   It's one of the 3 pilgrim-festivals beginning in the Hebrew month of Tishri and lasts for 7 days.  This year it takes place on the 17th of October, so we start the celebration traditionally at sundown the night before on the 16th.  Actually, as soon as Yom Kippur was finished, people started looking for wood to make their sukkahs.  It is remembered as a festival of harvest from (Exod. 23-16; IIChron. 7-8).                                         

                                                              

    It is celebrated by taking the 4 Species, which are PALM, CITRON, MYRTLE, AND WILLOW, and carrying them in procession in the synagogue, and of course, actually dwelling -or at least eating all meals in the Sukkah for that period.  During Temple times they added the celebrating of a water  libation festival during that last 7th day of Hashana Rabbah.  It also recalls the booth-like structures in the fields in which the peasants lived  in during the harvest in Israel.  

Sukkot is known as “the Time of our Happiness.”  This year we are remembering the hostages taken that have never been returned, and so it's a very sad time.  

 The problem is, I didn't see it as another holiday like Chanukah, celebrated in full by appreciating the history of our ancestors or any other way except doing some special decoration in a type of booth.                   

    Cities gave out prizes for the best Sukkah.  Here's a fancy one.  It's larger than most.  

 I moved to Israel and really got into it with our own Sukkot; decorating it and serving desserts in it to our friends who dropped over.  Why, we even were on holiday from work!  Schools were closed for this holiday!                                 

      In the synagogue the reading with the 4 species takes place

We move from the introspective and solemn mindset of the High Holidays to unbridled joy, which may seem a bit strange since on Sukkot, we are asked to leave the material comfort of our homes, and build a structure that is imperfect, temporary and open to the elements. But the sukkah’s reminder that our existence is fragile helps us to treasure the joyous moments of life, and its outdoor location helps us focus on the beauty of the world in which we live. 

Indeed, the Sukkah has no roof - but instead is covered with schach, greenery or bamboo, so that we can see the stars when we look up at night. And, the sukkah is a gathering place, a place where it is traditional to welcome guests and enjoy spending time together. You might also see some Jews walking in the street during Sukkot carrying an interesting collection of plants. These are the Arba’at Haminim, or the Four Species. We are commanded to take these four plants and use them to “rejoice before God.” 

And from Israel AM: The holiday of Sukkot (Tabernacles) begins tonight and runs through next weekend.  Added 10/16/24 at 1:01PM

During Sukkot Jews live (eat and sleep) in a hut-like structure called a Sukkah.

The Talmud states two reasons for the mitzvah of living in the Sukkah for seven days.

The first is to commemorate that our ancestors dwelled in Sukkahs in the wilderness. The second is to remember the “clouds of glory” that surrounded and protected the Jews in the desert. The Talmud seems to lean towards the second explanation. If this is the case, then why do we use a hut to represent the clouds? Wouldn’t it make more sense for us to live out in the open air, under the clouds? Wouldn’t that give us more of a feeling of complete dependence on the protection given us by God?

Although, in truth, living out “under the clouds” does starkly represent total dependence on God, real life isn’t as clear cut. We all try to build structures to provide us with security and protection. We live in these structures and feel safe and in control. We view these structures as permanent and without them we could not function. The reality, however, is that our structures are really just flimsy huts that create for us the illusion of permanence and security. They fall apart when we least expect them too.

The Sukkah that we live in for seven days reminds us that our own structures of security – our houses, careers, social status – are just temporary. They last for a week, a month, a year, several years, but are then taken down. The Sukkah reminds us that our real security and protection comes not from the walls that we build but from the graces of God.

May we all be blessed with the wisdom to differentiate between the security that is true and comes only from God and the false security of the hut that just looks real, but is only an illusion. And may we blessed with peace in Israel and the entire world. 

[Taken from my book Deep Waters.]  comment from Israel AM

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.ajc.org/news/what-is-sukkot-and-why-is-it-celebrated

Sukkot, Another High Holiday Following Others

 Nadene Goldfoot                                             

This says "Chag Sukkot Samayakh or Happy Sukkot!  It's in cursive Hebrew;   the way people write Hebrew.  The roof is shaded but opened up to the sky.  
  

"The holiday of Sukkot begins tonight, last for 7 days and is followed by the holiday of Shmini Atzeret – Simchat Torah (which share one day in Israel and are 2 days everywhere else). During Sukkot Jews live (eat and sleep) in a hut-like structure called a Sukkah.  

The only time I experienced a Sukkah was when I lived in Israel from 1980 to the end of 1985.  It seems that as soon as Yom Kippur was over with, Sukkah plans started by everyone.  Sukkahs were created by everyone.  A prize was given to the best Sukkah by the towns.  Schools were on vacation and we spent time visiting friends in their Sukkahs and eating cookies and drinking tea.  The sides of the Sukkahs were usually made of brightly colored blankets or rugs.  People slept in them. Our leader in this was our 13 year old neighbors who was fatherless, and had adopted Danny and directed him in all this.  It was a great experience for all. 

The Talmud states two reasons for the mitzvah of living in the Sukkah for seven days.

The first is to commemorate that our ancestors dwelled in Sukkahs in the wilderness. The second is to remember the “clouds of glory” that surrounded and protected the Jews in the desert. The Talmud seems to lean towards the second explanation. If this is the case, then why do we use a hut to represent the clouds? Wouldn’t it make more sense for us to live out in the open air, under the clouds? Wouldn’t that give us more of a feeling of complete dependence on the protection given us by God?

Although, in truth, living out “under the clouds” does starkly represent total dependence on God, real life isn’t as clear cut. We all try to build structures to provide us with security and protection. We live in these structures and feel safe and in control. We view these structures as permanent and without them we could not function. The reality, however, is that our structures are really just flimsy huts that create for us the illusion of permanence and security. They fall apart when we least expect them too.

The Sukkah that we live in for seven days reminds us that our own structures of security – our houses, careers, social status – are just temporary. They last for a week, a month, a year, several years, but are then taken down. The Sukkah reminds us that our real security and protection comes not from the walls that we build but from the graces of God.

May we all be blessed with the wisdom to differentiate between the security that is true and comes only from God and the false security of the hut that just looks real, but is only an illusion.     

"Rachel Neiman wrote, "We can only imagine what life might have been like for the Children of Israel, as they wandered the desert for 40 years following the exodus from Egypt. Or maybe we don’t have to imagine.

The desert traveled by the Israelites exists to this day. And each year, Jews relive their experience by housing themselves temporarily in open-roofed booths during the holiday of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles."                        

            A late 19th century Bedouin tent as captured by the Bonfils Studio."

Resource:

Israel am News.  

Retelling the Planning of the Exodus

Escaping the Egyptian soldiers with a miracle happening, the parting of the sea
Led by Moses, Egyptian slaves were freed after 400 years of slavery
only to be chased for their leaving-with their permission.  This was the beginning of
such experiences of a government not keeping their promise to this people,
yet they will survive.  Am Yisrael Chai! 
We remember these days with our holidays of Passover and Sukkot  

Nadene Goldfoot                                         

Planning the what would turn out to be a 40 year Exodus for people who had been held as slaves for the past 400 years was a monumental task, fit for a Prince of Egypt, even though he was now past 80 years old.
                                                                               

Moses, a Levite,  had time to think about how he would do such a thing on his own journey when he left his wife, children and grandchildren in Midian to travel back to where he had been born; Egypt.  He knew he would have to win a debate first with today's Pharaoh, a boy he grew up with, he figured.  Then the Exodus itself.  How would he survive at his age without the comforts of home?  His own kin would not mind being they had known nothing but slavery and hardship in their whole lives, but he had been raised by the Pharaoh's daugher and was educated along with the Pharaoh's own grandchildren.  He had had the comforts of living in the princess's own household.  He had lived comfortably in Midian with Jethro, the local priest, and his daughter, Zipporah, as his wife.
                                                                         

This is the time for us to reflect what it would have been like for our ancestors back 4,000 years ago to go on such a journey and relive in role-play during Passover slightly the lives of our ancestors who took us out of any possibility of us growing up in slavery and not as free men in our own country.  It's come about slowly for us.  Not until the end of WWI  in 1917 did most European Jews feel freed  from the tyranny of Europe towards the Jewish people.

Ah yes, the Jewish people.  We've been a people without  a country ever since 70 CE when the Romans burned down our 2nd Temple, Solomon having built the first that was so damaged by Nebuadnezzar, the Babylonian in 586 ///BCE, in Jerusalem.  We had started off as a family of 70 and our servants in the town of Ur, now found in Iraq, and we were very fertile.  We grew and grew and were added to by other slaves held in Egypt that worked with us.  Moses made us a people which we happily agreed with.
                                                                           

Moses helped us to become a people with a religion, a way of life in that we would be treating people the way we would like to be treated.  We would never do to them what we didn't want done to us again, like make people into slaves, or kill at will as we lived under such stress.  There was but one G-d; not a world of them in Mt. Olympus as the Greeks and Romans believed; but one unseen G-d who told Moses how to get us from point A in Egypt to point B back to the home of our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  How we have remembered these people, our dream held long dear with stories from our parents handed down to us.

Moses had used all the convincing techniques he had up his sleeves to get the Pharaoh to allow this people to exit out of Egypt.  400 years was enough.  Times had changed.  This Pharaoh was in agreement.  He remembered Moses.
                                                                         

Today's journey between Egypt and Jordan

Imagine the rush that occurred with these slaves having been told by Moses that they would have to leave in a few hours after being given the signal that it was a GO.  The rush to collect all they could from people around them that would help on their journey.  Women who knew they had no time, mixed flour and water together and spread it out on rocks to dry in the sun for food to carry on the journey; something we imitate with our matzos.  Believe me, it was much harder to chew than Manischewitz matzos.   Animals rounded up to take on the journey.  400 years of work without pay, and these people knew this, so felt they had something coming to them.  They had no idea that they would be on the march for 40 years.
                                                                         

Retelling the Exodus story with song; as told in our Tanakh
You will bring them and implant them on the mount of Your heritage,
the foundation of Your dwelling-place that You, Hashem, have made-
the Sanctuary, my Lord, that Your hands established.  

And so we continue to retell this story every year since it occurred.
It was that life-changing an episode. 

I can't imagine how they ever lived through slavery for that long a period of time.  Sleeping without a Seely mattress, how could they have managed that?
                                                                             

A Sukkah, built as it was 3500 years ago.  

Our American Colonialists and Pioneers had made something soft to sleep on.  Even English people in the 1200s would have had some sort of hay or straw bedding.  My grandmother in Portland had a feather pillow; maybe they had feather mattresses.   What did slaves have but hard cold floors?  How could they have slept outside?  How did they waken without coffee?  Today we can't even get started without it.
                                                                         

We know that they had built 3 sided-type tents, Sukkot,  on their trip over the sandy desert for protection when sleeping using some sticks and then blankets for the sides.  We copy this also in our following holiday of Sukkot and people in Israel do eat and sleep in them for the length of our holiday of remembrance.  Sukkot comes after Passover.  This is when we speak and remember the awesome event experienced by the children of Israel (Jacob) which is what we called ourselves, 7 weeks after their exodus from Egypt when they camped at the foot of Mt. Sinai somewhere in the Sinai Peninsula.                                                             

 It was then that the Revelation was revealed to the people, Israel.  It's when Moses came down the mountain with the 10 commandments given to him by G-d.  These very same commandments were to become the moral  bedrock for much of Western civilization.
                                                                               

The distance from Egypt to Canaan is not that far.  Today you can travel it in 10 hours on route 90 by car.  It's 751.5 km or 466.96045 miles.  I can travel 400 miles from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, Oregon across the state in 6 to 7 hours easily.   In 1579 BCE, about 3,500 years ago it took Moses 40 years to move 600,000 people that far.  As it was done on purpose, we have to understand that this gave the people time to produce two more generations that were not slaves and did not have the slave mentality, but had turned into a solid people, and were producing strength of mind and body.  By the time they arrived in that 40 year epoch, they were not the same people that had left.  They, of course, had mostly died off, and this was a new breed of people, so anxious to end their migration.  They had been exposed to much in their travels of other people and ways of living so they could compare what they had accepted with what they had seen.  They had something now they had lost;strong  faith in their one G-d, a belief that Abraham had taught his children.

Moses survived the 40 year trek but died just outside of Canaan, so he never saw the land of his fathers.  He died in an unknown spot so as not to ever to be worshipped-(G-d forbid) as a god.  He was a man who listened to his moral compass; his G-d.

The end of our role play to remember those days is done in a Sukkah below is a large community-sized sukkah which perhaps a synagogue has built it for its congregants to perform the mitzvah of eating in one as our forefathers did.  Woven mats carried could be the answer for clean flooring, and sleeping.  I'm sure our forefathers didn't have tables or chairs but sat on cushions on the mats.  I hope cushions were invented there by then.
                                                                                   

Resource: Tanakh (Old Testament)
To Be a Jew-by Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin

The Seven Joyous Days of Sukkot

Nadene Goldfoot                                                              

Our Jewish history goes back so far that we have accumulated a lot of historic facts.  Moses, from the Levite tribe,  lived from 1391 to 1271 BCE.  It could also have taken place as far back as 1445 BCE.  Egyptian history indicates a period during the reign of Pharaoh Merneptah (1225-15 BCE).  Some think Rameses I or II was the Pharoah of the story which is the city where Jews left Egypt from.  Thutmoses III is a good possible of the pharoah in question, putting the Exodus in 1440 BCE.  To remember and celebrate a period  that happened at least  c. 3,404 years ago is just part of how we remember this important event.  Now we're about to embark upon another  happy holiday that starts tomorrow night (Wednesday the 18th) and lasts for 7 days.  It's a camping out under the stars holiday commemorating the Israelites during their 40 years of wandering in the desert with Moses when they left Egypt as slaves.  The Israelites were the 12 tribes of Jacob, son of Isaac who was the son of Abraham.  Jacob had 12 sons by his 2 wives and 2 concubines and one lovely daughter, Dinah.  The 70 people were held captive as slaves from the time they had entered Egypt to the time they left with Moses, an event called the Exodus.  Of course, by the time they left, all the slaves who were following Moses numbered about 600,000.  Their trek is quite a story.  Moses actually took a census of each tribe.

They built little booth-like structures that they slept in. In essence,  we role play this period of time by actually reenacting the experience.  The best part is that work is prohibited on the first day in Israel, but the first 2 days in the diaspora because we want to be sure we are doing it on the day the people of Israel are also doing it.

Families try to eat all 3 meals and snacks in their succah.  We have a special recipe for building our succah (booth) like a rectangle missing a side  that resembles a dining room in a way but with 3 sides which is found in the Mishnah and Talmud treatise "Sukkah".  The roof is of special importance  and must be made of leafy boughs or sometimes straw with the shaded area bigger than the unshaded.  This means that we have holes in our roof so we can see the stars.  Walls can be made of anything, usually blankets, and only 2 really need to be completed.  The booth is to be decorated with curtains, fruits, and symbols of the holiday like pumpkins, such things from a harvest.                                  

Sukkot is one of 3 pilgrim-festivals beginning on the Hebrew calendar on Tishri 15 with the 8th day of Shemini Atzeret being a separate holiday which in Israel is combined with another festival of Simhat Torah.  It's also called a festival of harvest.  The tradition is to celebrate it by taking the  4 species; palm (lulav), citron (etrog), myrtle and willow and carrying them in a procession in the synagogue and by living in your Sukkah.  Each of these 4 kinds represent a different type of Jew.  It is a symbol of our oneness as a people.  We all need one another. The 4 kinds are waved in all 4 directions; east, west, north and south and up and down, signifying that G-d is everywhere.  This gives me the shivers, because right now we are experiencing the return of all our Jews from the 4 corners of the earth, something that has been prophesied

We are told that during those 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, the Jewish people were surrounded by protective "clouds of glory."  We remember this awesome event in our history to enhance our awareness of G-d's all-embracing love and protection.  We were commanded "In Sukkahs (booths) you shall dwell, seven days."  (Lev. 23:42).  It's great since this holiday is so much fun and makes us really remember the history.  Mothers will bake different harvest breads like banana, zucchini breads, etc, the more the merrier to entertain friends with.  Also, it's a breather from school that had just started, our last hurrah before buckling down and studying.

The period of living in our sukkah is to help us  become more exhilarated with life.  We had just experienced 7 solemn days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.  Sukkot will bring us happiness in all the weeks of the year to come.  It is a great time to recall.

Resource: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/02/sukkah-jews-eat-sleep-and-give-thanks-in-sukkot-photos_n_1933625.html
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-exodus-date-1440bc.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharaohs_in_the_Bible
Your Tshrei guide from Chabad, 1996