Let us suppose that a hard-driving businessman in Upper Michigan, with its severe winters, has been working himself to the bone. He desperately needs a vacation. For weeks, he has planned a few days of rest and recreation in South Florida. He imagines a time of total relaxation. He looks forward to sitting by the pool and soaking up the sun to restore his depleted energies. A key component of making all of this happen is sunshine. Therefore, each day he earnestly prays to God for the sun to shine in Florida while he is there. At the very same time, a South Florida orchard owner who lives near the place where this Minnesota businessman plans to vacation is wracked with worries. For months, South Florida has experienced no rain. If rain does not fall soon, this man's livelihood will be imperiled. Therefore, this man has been praying earnestly each day for rain to fall on his citrus trees.

In these instances, we need to ask: To whose prayers does God respond: those of the businessman or those of the orchard farmer? There is problem with this question. By asking it, we assume that we can bend God's plan to our own desires. In so doing, we can make God our servant and ourselves the master.

Ernst Simon, the noted Jewish thinker who taught at the Hebrew University, labels this kind of praying “idolatry.” Simon explains that “. . . by trying to force God to do his will, man transforms God (Him) into an idol . . . “ Simon emphasizes that “authentic prayer addresses itself not to a god we make, but to the God who made us.”

We acknowledge that these prayers of the Upper Michigan businessman and the Florida farmer are heartfelt sincere and well-meaning. Yet they are essentially egocentric and selfish. They represent a lower level of supplication, because they center only on ourselves and on our own wants and needs.

There is higher and better kind of prayer. It dominates this weekend in our civil calendar. This is the prayer of thanksgiving. The prayer of thanksgiving, unlike these self-absorbed supplications, directs us outward. It draws our attention to others, and away from ourselves.

At this juncture, we must ask ourselves: “Does God really need all of these thanksgiving prayers? Does God really depend on our words of appreciation? Is God not above and beyond all of our praises and our expressions of gratitude?” God certainly is. God does not crave our endorsement nor is God swayed by our disapproval. God actually has no ego. God performs in a certain way, whether we like it or not. God does not determine future actions by public opinion polls. Then, if God is not impressed with what we say, why are we constantly called upon to be thankful to God? For four reasons. First of all, when we thank God, we sensitize ourselves to the many gifts we have been given. By offering these expressions of thanks and praise to God, we will learn to take nothing in life for granted.

The problem is that we do. In the striking words of our liturgy, Gates of Prayer, we often “walk sightless among miracles.” We see children at play, we watch the alternation of seasons, and we observe the rebirth of nature in the springtime. Yet we are unmoved. Our attention is distracted. Our minds are elsewhere. We don't pay attention to these wonders.

Robert Louis Stevenson once noted that the person who “has forgotten to be thankful has fallen asleep in the midst of life.” Offering prayers of thanksgiving, therefore, serves as an antidote to apathy. It combats our tendency to become blase and complacent about the small wonders that unfold before our eyes myriad times during the day. Our expressions of thanksgiving will sharpen our perception. They will force us to see life as a series of miracles, rather than a string of mundane happenings.

There is yet a second reason that we need to thank God. We need to curb our arrogance. We must realize that it is God, and not we, who is ultimately in control of our lives. For many decades, in American life, an eminently successful multi-millionaire would call himself a “self-made man.” Whatever wealth he accumulated, whatever power he achieved, whatever prestige he acquired, he ascribed to his own abilities. He left no room for God in assessing his triumphs.

A prayer of thanksgiving and praise, if taken seriously, would compel that financial wizard to acknowledge that it is God, and not his own powers, that has enable him to achieve economic success. In other words, prayers of thanksgiving can nourish a spirit of humility and modesty.

There is a third reason that we need to thank God. Prayers of thanksgiving keep us in constant contact with God. Often one who is out of touch with God for a long time suddenly contracts a serious illness or suffers a tragedy. That person tries to pray but does not gain any spiritual comfort. What's the problem? That person has never developed any ongoing relationship with God. That person has never prayed to God on a regular basis but only during an emergency.

When we call on God only in a crisis, as after the September 11 tragedy, we practice “Fox Hole Religion.” We may rudely learn, to our serious disappointment, that God is not there in the “fox hole” with us. In such painful moments, it is not that God has abandoned us. It is not that God has rejected us. Rather, it is just that we have not developed any skills for tuning in to God. Prayer takes steady practice. It requires ceaseless repetition. Prayers of thanksgiving provide us with the way to keep us in a constant and unbroken relationship with God.

There is a fourth and final reason we need to thank God. Thanking God enables us to accept the blows and arrows of life with equanimity and grace. It forces us to think positive thoughts about what we still have rather than to bemoan what we have lost.

For this reason, prayers of thanksgiving are superior to prayers of petition. Expressing gratitude to God for our blessings is better than pleading to God to fix our bad circumstances.

Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof captures the difference these two approaches to God in this brilliant observation:

This habit of thanking God, rather than begging from God, has become, through centuries of this type of prayer, a prevalent state of mind. It enabled our ancestors to find joy even in minor blessings…

A poverty-stricken, forlorn, exiled Jew, raising his last crust of bread to his mouth, might perhaps be justified in cursing his lot and denouncing God. Instead it would not enter his mind to partake of this bit of bread without first saying the Hamotzi, thanking God for bringing bread from the earth

Jewish prayer teaches a person to overcome bitterness and self-pity… Prayer is not primarily piteous pleading but it is essentially grateful communion with the infinite.

Thus, even though God does not personally depend on our prayers of gratitude, we need to offer them. We must thank God, first, in order to take note of the wonders and mysteries that are revealed before our eyes many times daily. Second, we must thank God in order to remind ourselves that it is God, and not we, who is the Source of our human achievements and victories. Third, we must thank God in order to keep us in a relationship with God so as to reduce our self-centeredness and to enlarge our souls. And finally, we must thank God to enable us to keep a healthy perspective when life becomes difficult.

In a moment our choir will sing an anthem, from Psalm 92, which is both the traditional Sabbath Psalm and a hymn of gratitude to God. With our choir, we affirm its opening verse: Tov lehodot laAdonai ulezameir leShimha Elyon- It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing to God's name, the Most High.” Amen.

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