The Pilgrims and The Torah – Blessings of Plenty at Thanksgiving

The portion of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, that Jews read all over the world this Thanksgiving week is Toledot, the sixth Torah portion in the book of Genesis.

Toledot focuses on the life of Isaac, son of Abraham. In chapter 26 of Genesis, we read that Isaac was enormously successful in agriculture. The text says, “Isaac sowed in that land and reaped a hundredfold the same year. The Lord blessed him.”

After quarreling with the Philistines, Isaac had to move from the land of Abimelech to first one location and another, finally settling in a third location of which he said, “Now at last the Lord has granted us ample space to increase in the land.”

Later in the story, Jacob, Isaac’s son, tricked Isaac into giving him the blessing that Isaac had intended for Esau. The beginning of that blessing is, “May God give you of the dew of heaven and the fat of the earth, abundance of new grain and wine.”

A harvest of a hundredfold. Ample space to increase in the land. Abundance of new grain and wine.

These three phrases all express an important theme for Thanksgiving: the God-given blessings of an abundance of food, the freedom to enjoy it, and a land with sufficient space in which to live.

The Town of Braintree is a particularly auspicious place in which to contemplate the connections between this Torah portion and Thanksgiving. We are located, of course, just a few miles from the places where the Pilgrims began their explorations of this continent just about four hundred years ago.

The Pilgrims were English Separatists who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. The Pilgrims, like the Israelites in the Exodus, were fleeing persecution. In their case, it was religious persecution. They broke away from the Church of England because they felt the Church violated biblical principles of true Christians. Due to persecution and economic distress, they believed they had to break away in order to form congregations that were more in keeping with divine requirements. They believed the Church of England had not gone far enough in its break with the Catholic Church. Their actions were considered treasonous, so these Separatists had to flee their homeland.

Determined and very courageous men and women committed themselves (in all aspects of their lives) to life based on the Bible and a relationship with God. They brought their only known culture and spiritual values to the New World and attempted to establish an improved foundation of English society on an unfamiliar new continent. They also very consciously thought of themselves as the new Israelites. They knew the Bible well, including the stories in Exodus of the Israelites fleeing from the persecution of Pharaoh and making their way to a promised land. They thought of themselves as being the spiritual heirs of those Israelites.

These unprepared new arrivals knew little of how to survive the harsh winters in the New World. After arriving in December of 1620, more than half of them had died of starvation before spring. By the next winter, an English-speaking Native American named Squanto taught the immigrants how to build homes fitting to the climate, when to plant indigenous crops such as corn, and how to cook it.

Squanto was a member of the Wampanoag tribe, the same tribe still active in this part of Massachusetts and whose name is the basis for our very successful sports teams, the Wamps.

Governor William Bradford wrote that Squanto was “a special instrument sent by God for our good beyond our expectations.” With gratitude to God for sending Squanto and providing the following year’s bounty, the Colonists, Squanto, Chief Massasoit, and the Wampanoag people feasted on the crops' harvest and wild game, giving thanks to God.

As we again celebrate Thanksgiving this year, I hope we can experience for ourselves that same sense of gratitude for all the bounties we enjoy.