On the day after Thanksgiving, TABC students, alumni, and some family members came in to school for optional Torah learning. A total of about 25 people attended a program that included a Shiur by Rabbi Fridman, Sgan Rosh Yeshiva of Torah Academy of Bergen County.
Entitled “Hakarat Hatov: The Cornerstone of a Halachic Worldview,” the Shiur was highly related to the Thanksgiving season, because it talked about the obligation to give thanks daily.
Rabbi Fridman remarked that giving thanks is extremely important and, since that subject is on everybody’s minds during this season, it was a good choice to talk about.
The day started at 8:30 with Shacharit in the Beit Midrash. Because it was Rosh Chodesh, the Tefillah included Hallel, Torah Reading, and Mussaf.
After Shacharit, we all went into the lunchroom for breakfast. Breakfast included bagels and muffins, along with coffee and other beverages. At breakfast, I met alumni who were thrilled to be back in TABC.
Junior Shimmy Greengart, who attended with his brother, greatly enjoyed the experience. He also thought that it was amazing to see his brother’s friends returning to the school.
When talking to TABC alumni at the event, so many former students remarked how cool it was to be back in TABC. Some had graduated a few years ago but still retained strong connections to the school.
When asked about seeing his Talmidim now in different places and phases of life, Rabbi Fridman remarked that he felt “like a parent who is seeing a child returning.”
Next, the group returned back to the Beit Midrash for the main part of the day, the Shiur. People filed in and began to take their seats. Source sheets were handed out and we began to learn.
The Shiur looked at various approaches to the obligation of giving thanks. While many say that Thanksgiving is a very Jewish Holiday, they may not realize how much significance there is to giving thanks.
The Shiur started with a source in the tractate that we are learning this year, Brachot, which states that Leah was the first one who ever gave praise to G-d. The premise of the shiur was based on this because, in fact, there were certainly people who had come before her who did give thanks to G-d.
Senior Mikey Schwartz, who attended with his father and grandfather, said that he was “quite surprised” to hear this quote from Brachot because he could think of countless other people who seemingly did give thanks to G-d.
The Shiur then went on to examine what Hakarat Hatov (thanksgiving) really is by analyzing it through many different lenses. According to the Torah Law, there are very few obligatory blessings. However, many were commanded according to Rabbinical Law.
Torah Law, however, does require that every person does give thanks at least once daily, contingent on the fact that they eat bread. This daily blessing is called Birkat Hamazon.
Additionally, Ramban, one of the early sages (Rishonim), believed that the blessing recited on learning Torah every day is counted as one of the Mitzvot from the Torah.
In an even earlier Rishon than the Ramban, the Rambam holds that there is an additional way to give thanks daily. He holds that there is an obligation to pray every day and one of the parts of the necessary daily prayer is giving thanks (hodaah) to G-d.
Rabbi Fridman compared these two aspects of blessings (on food and on Torah) required by the Torah to two very important aspects of our lives. When asked why TABC students need to give Hakarat Hatov more than others, Rabbi Fridman said that TABC students are blessed in both spiritual and materialistic aspects of their lives.
In regard to matters of the spirit, Rabbi Fridman noted that TABC students have more opportunities to learn Torah than most Jews, some of whom are not even fortunate enough to learn any Torah at all.
Schwartz, who learns in Rabbi Fridman’s Gemara Shiur, said that he feels privileged to learn from the Rebbeim in TABC.
Helfgot, who also learns in Rabbi Fridman’s Gemara Shiur, remarked that he feels “absolutely privileged” to learn Torah at TABC.
After presenting the notions of thanksgiving according to prominent early commentators, Rabbi Fridman circled back to the point about Leah being the first one to give thanks to G-d. To explain this point, Rabbi Fridman drew an analogy to Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation.
Commenting on Rabbi Fridman’s use of this source and on the Shiur in general, Helfgot said, “Rabbi Fridman, in his classic style, was able to draw brilliant conclusions from a wide array of sources.” He also said that many American values are taken from Torah values.
When reading Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, Rabbi Fridman noted something perplexing. The Proclamation was meant to standardize the way that Thanksgiving was celebrated, which would make it seem like a very joyous thing, yet it was written in the middle of the Civil War, which was certainly not a joyous time.
Rabbi Fridman explained that by 1863, the year of the Proclamation, the North was not yet winning the war but was doing better, so they felt that they should give thanks.
Rabbi Fridman explained that this was exactly the way to explain the problem we were facing with Leah. Leah was not completely happy because she knew she would never be Jacob’s favorite, but she was still giving thanks because she had many sons. Like America in 1863, her reasons for giving thanks were only partial but still very real.
Helfgot said that this point was extremely relevant to him as a senior taking AP classes in high school. He said will apply this lesson and give thanks for something incomplete, even though he knows he still has a lot more work to do.
The Shiur wrapped up before 11.
Rabbi Fridman has given around 16 Shiurim in the Legal Holiday Series and said that this Shiur was 15 minutes longer than the usual hour-long Shiurim. The attendance, however, was similar. Rabbi Fridman plans to give future Shiurim in this series and to offer Torah learning even when school is not in session.
Rabbi Fridman will continue to include the greater TABC community. My father, Raanan Agus, attended with me, and he said it was “a privilege to be associated with a school that invites family members to daven and learn with the students and Rebbeim.”