Where Thanks Are Due

You’re preparing for an important meeting, with a client, customer or supervisor. It’s one of those make- it or break-it encounters, and you’re really nervous. You do your best preparation, say a prayer and walk in to the meeting.

You say a prayer because you’re feeling vulnerable, which makes you recognize how much you need a Higher Power. Feeling powerless makes you emotionally available to the Divine.

The meeting goes off better than you could have ever expected. A success! Your presentation was glowingly accepted, you’re rewarded with immediate benefit and a promise of more reward in the future. You feel like a million bucks!

What do you do as you walk out? Call your spouse? Your boss? Your best friend? Go for a celebratory beer?

How about thank G-d? My guess is that it’s a less likely reflex.

We instinctively turn to G-d in times of need, not in recognition for His part in our successes.

My guess is that people usually claim the winners for themselves. It’s a natural ego response. Yet, natural as that instinct may be, the Torah wants to bring us to Higher Consciousness.

The Rabbis directed us to bless/thank G-d every time we eat a morsel of food. But that’s the Rabbinic ordinance. Biblically there’s only one blessing to be recited over food: After you’ve had a satisfying meal.

Why?

When you’re hungry, you’re more inclined to think of G-d (and others); the Torah didn’t mandate a pre-eating blessing, because it comes more naturally. You’re in a needy spot.

But when you’re satiated, sitting pretty, the Torah puts up a stop sign for your psyche: Take pause! Remember upon Whom you’re dependent! Remember that your successes definitely need your input, your wisdom, wit and charm are important, but success is ultimately dependent on a Higher Source.

As you go through your day today, I wish you many successes.

Many opportunities for genuine thanks to the One Above.