Gratitude

By: iTopTopics Staff

Compassion

Woodland walk, Fish Creek Park, Alberta - Canada is a provincial park located in the southern part of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is one of the largest urban parks in North America, stretching 19 km from east to west.. Photo by Bernard Spragg. NZ, licensed under Public Domain Dedication

"I felt sorry for myself because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet." - Jewish proverb on compassion.

There has been a continuous debate whether it is acceptable for American Jews to celebrate Thanksgiving. Unlike other celebrations, such as Halloween, halakha, Jewish religious laws derived from the Written and Oral Torah, does not prohibit Jewish participation in Thanksgiving because the holiday has secular, not religious origins and undertones. Jews are forbidden by the Torah to partake in "gentile customs," a prohibition derived from Leviticus 18:3, but most do not consider Thanksgiving to fall in this category.