Celebrate Thanksgivukkah at Church This Year (November 2013 KOL)

79811. That is the next year that Chanukah and Thanksgiving will coincide according to a physicist and mathematician whose bris I officiated at many years ago! So why not celebrate this incredibly rare cosmic event in the most ecumenical, meaningful, and spiritual way possible?  Join in the joy of the season as we continue our annual tradition of sharing the night before Thanksgiving together with our friends from Abiding Presence Lutheran Church.

For our newer members, do not panic!  The good, Jewish, Reform synagogue you joined is still all of that.  What you need to know is that from September 1986 through September 1995, Temple B’nai Shalom met at Abiding Presence, thanks to their gracious hospitality. It took us that long to create a viable community, raise funds, and get zoning to build our temple.  This will be our 27th Thanksgiving together.  Our choirs sing and our clergy preach, and this year, we will light the menorah and teach our church friends how to play dreidl.  They are excited and so are we.

In a world, and a Washington, that focuses on differences, our two congregations spend Thanksgiving focusing on what unites us as people of faith and loyal Americans.  Through music, prayer, study, and tzedakah we spend Erev Thanksgiving (erev=literally means evening, always the term for a holiday’s evening start, e.g. Erev Rosh Hashanah or Erev Shabbat) celebrating family and community, God’s blessings, and our communal hopes for all humanity.  In one hour, we are able to spiritually enter a holiday too often associated with excessive eating, shopping, and football watching.  The tradition of this special service is so strong and so long standing that it was one of the questions Pastor Keseley was asked when she was interviewed by the church, “How do you feel about praying with Jews the night before Thanksgiving?”  She knew that this was a non-negotiable for her parishioners.

The tradition is that one congregation hosts and the other congregation’s clergy person gives the sermon.  Last year, while the church was under construction, we hosted and I preached.  This year, Pastor Keseley and I will both speak – I will introduce the message of Chanukah and she will talk about Thanksgiving.  Next year, we’ll return to our usual routine.  For nine years we lit candles at church for Shabbat and Chanukah.  When we had a flood and needed to evacuate our building, they took us back for a few months so that we could continue to have Friday night and Bar/Bat Mitzvah services. Many families make the service an ecumenical tradition.  With both congregations growing and new members joining us, we want to keep this important relationship alive for another generation.  As Jews, we know that to do that, we need to keep telling our story. “In the beginning, B’nai Shalom met in a Lutheran Church…” so that in the end, we can live the values we cherish with the people we care about.