The American holiday of Thanksgiving (חַג הַהוֹדָיָה) undoubtedly has its roots in the Jewish tradition of giving thanks to God, and some historians believe that the early “pilgrims” actually derived the idea for the holiday from the Biblical festival of Sukkot (i.e., “the feast of Tabernacles”). Before fleeing to the “New World,” the pilgrims lived for a decade among the Sephardic Jews in Holland, since Holland was considered a safe haven from religious persecution at the time. Since the pilgrims were devout Calvinists and Puritans, their religious idealism led them to regard themselves as “new Israel,” and it is likely that they learned that Sukkot commemorated the people of Israel’s deliverance from their religious persecution in ancient Egypt at that time. After they emigrated to the “Promised Land” of America, it is not surprising that these pilgrims may have chosen the festival of Sukkot as the paradigm for their own celebration. As the Torah commands: “Celebrate the feast so that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God” (Lev. 23:39-43). The highly devout pilgrims regarded their perilous journey to the new world as a type of “Exodus event” and therefore sought the appropriate Biblical holiday to commemorate their safe arrival in a land full of new promise…
It is interesting to note that the Hebrew word for “turkey” is tarnegol hodu (תַּרְנְגוֹל הוֹדו), literally, “Indian chicken,” which is often shortened to hodu (הוֹדוּ). It is a happy coincidence that we customarily eat turkey on Thanksgiving, and this reminds us of the “thanks” connection: “Give thanks (hodu) to the Lord for he is good,” for His love endures forever.”
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