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Idaho faith: Remember to share the wealth, be generous — this time of year, and always

How do we live a life of gratitude? This question lies at the heart of our Thanksgiving celebration. What would it look like to embody the holiday’s message of thankfulness through the rest of the year?

A little-known passage in Leviticus offers a profound insight into this query. Most readers skim through that book, as its focus on ritual purity and priestly offerings feels distinctly foreign to our contemporary lives. Yet embedded in its long and detailed list of animal sacrifices — which have not been observed for nearly 2,000 years — we find a powerful practice whose spirit remains extraordinarily relevant.

This teaching is connected with the class of offerings known as shlamim — sacrifices of well-being. Among that group, there is one known as the todah — the offering of gratitude — that significantly stands out. While the rest of the sacrifices of well-being may be eaten by the priests and their families until the third day, “the flesh of (the) thanksgiving sacrifice of well-being must be eaten on the day that it is offered; none of it shall be set aside.” (Leviticus 7:15) Any of its sacrificial meat that remains unconsumed the following morning must be destroyed.

What does the Torah have against leftovers? Drawing on the medieval Spanish commentator Doon Isaac Abravanel, Rabbi Shai Held suggests that by requiring celebrants to finish the thanksgiving offering in one sitting, Leviticus effectively directs them to share the meal with friends and family. He writes:

“The nature of gratitude is such that it is inherently outward-looking. When we are moved to the depths of our being by having been given something, we seek to become givers ourselves. A grateful heart overflows. The simple requirement that there not be any leftovers from the thanksgiving offering thus teaches us a fundamental theological and spiritual lesson. We are not meant to rest content with being recipients of God’s gifts but are asked to become givers ourselves. God’s gifts are meant to flow through us and not merely to us.”

In other words, gratitude and hoarding are completely incompatible. As one of my favorite prayers in our Reform Jewish prayer book adds: Teach us, O God, to give thanks for what we have by sharing it with others. To recognize our blessings is to share the wealth. On this Thanksgiving weekend — and beyond — may those of us who are blessed with more than enough be generous in our words, gifts and deeds.

Dan Fink is the rabbi for the Ahavath Beth Israel congregation. The Idaho Statesman’s weekly faith column features a rotation of writers from many different faiths and perspectives.