Note: this was originally posted in 2013, but the message still holds true every year. 

A Thanksgiving/Chanukah Card Talk

For the first time since 1888, and the last time for the next 77,798 years, these two days of remembering what has gone before, and looking towards the future, converge.

It is a season of giving thanks to G-d for the myriad blessing we have been given. (And all the people said, "Amen.")

It is also a time when family gets together to eat a lot of food. (And all the people said, "hell yeah.")

But there is the rub: it is a time when family gets together.

Sometimes family is unsafe.

Sometimes family tries to screw you out of your birthright while handing you a bowl of stew.

Sometimes family steals your blessing over a plate of well-spiced meat and warm rolls.

Sometimes divorce, abuse, neglect, lies, addiction, adultery, and an unending list of trauma make water thicker than blood. "Chosen family" more important than biological family.

For some this is a season where they remember why they are glad to be away at college, or starting their own family, or take on extra responsibility at work which won't allow them to travel, or lock themselves in their homes until Sat morning.

Remember it took an act of G-d for Esau and Jacob to reconcile, (and yes, food was involved in that interchange as well), but the years between were rife with tension and avoidance behavior.

Remember those outside of your family for whom this time of the year is not a pleasant one.

Remember those inside your family for whom you may need to leave your sweet potatoes on the table and seek out to ask forgiveness. Or the beginnings of forgiveness.

But what do we know: we made this game and you probably think we're going to Hell after we pass the salt.

Eat. Drink. Be merry.

L'chaim!

The perfect expansion deck for the holiday!