Our Matriarch Leah not only taught us about “Thanksgiving” but she understood that the essence of the of the mission of the 12 tribes would depend on “acknowledging that everything comes from God — there is no other power or source of blessing other than God.
There is no real word in Hebrew for “thank.” The root “LeHodot” really means “to acknowledge.”
When Leah gave birth to her sixth son, she understood that God had fulfilled His blessing to her by giving her a full complement of six of the twelve tribes. She said, “Now I will thank (odeh) God.” Therefore she named her son “Yehudah” (Judah) which means “he will thank God.”
Yehudah would ultimately become the leader of the tribes, and King David would be his descendant. We are not called the Jewish (Judaen) People simply because the 10 tribes were “lost” and the majority of the Children of Israel today come from the tribe of Judah.
We are called “Yehudim – Jews” because the essence of our mission is to teach the world that we must acknowledge (thank) with every breath at every moment that God is the source of all blessing, there is no other.
God bless you all in Israel be safe and thank God for His love and protection. I love you all
Shallom
A secret Hebrew word? I know each Hebrew letter has a number and everything means something.
I know most of the Hebrew letters but don’t necessarily get them in the correct order.
It’s 2:00AM in Yaven’el. So I assume you are sleeping and I won’t get an answe until the Sun rises. So, I’m stopping-for now-to finish some prep for Thanksgiving day tomorrow. Wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving and as I’ve said before “EVERY day in ISRAEL is a day of Thanksgiving. Shalom
Olive Oil plays a huge part on my culinary skills. I assure one and all that GGOO is the Best Olive Oil in the world – and I’ve bought the best kosher from Italy and Spain! Nothing beats GGOO
Beautiful Rabbi! Thanks again for the webinar via Zoom. It was very much appreciated. It reminds us to thank God for everything and every aspect of our lives. Sometimes we just take things for granted. Thanks for sharing that when you awake the first thing you do is thank the Lord. I do that too and sometimes at the end of a work day I thank Him for His grace and mercy that kept me through the day and helped me to make decisions and do what I had to do throughout the day. Further, to know that Judah means thanks and Leah thanking God for His blessings of the womb shows that in each facet of our lives we ought to give thanks. I appreciate the word out of Deuteronomy, reminding to give thanks for everything as it is when we are ungrateful that we tend to forget God and His blessings. Even Paul writing in Thessalonians 5:18 tells us, “In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” The session is very much appreciated and it is timely, in the current pandemic that we are under. Instead of fussing and being angry, give thanks.
Thank you for this explanation! This is a good explanation, among others I’ve read, as our portuguese and dutch bibles speak about it meaning Praise the Lord! Which I think is a good explanation, too, meaning basically the same, in my humble opinion.
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I had written on a piece of paper quite awhile ago – Today Rabbah and wrote that it meant thank you. Is that incorrect? I’m not sure what the source was where I received that.
Todah Rabbah means “Thank you very much”
Amen!