April 15 2024
In one of his posts, Chaim Bentorah describes the Israeli response to thanksgiving:
As he continues his post, he asks why Thanksgiving stands alone from praise coming to the conclusion that ha-Todah, the word for thanks giving is closely connected with the concept of intimacy. When we are thankful, we steward a heart of gratitude and position ourselves in way where we recognize G-d’s provision.
As high priests, if we think of praise as a sacrifice we place on the altar (Psalms 50:23, Hebrews 13:15) then thanksgiving would be like the sanctification of that offering. In Isaiah 66, Adonai denies the offering of Israel as he looks “for a humble and contrite heart.” G-d cares more for our heart when giving a sacrifice than the sacrifice in itself. In terms of thanksgiving, by acknowledging the blessings that Adonai has given in the past, we humble ourselves, posture our hearts away from grumbling for the ‘blessings’ we aren’t seeing and recognize how abundantly G-d provides.
Praise in terms becomes the gift to our king and thanksgiving our posture. Much like how a gift would be spoiled by grumbling through the giving, so is our praise defiled when we simply ‘go through the motions.’ By starting our worship with thanksgiving, we ground ourselves in the truth of G-d’s promises, proclaim his divinity and power over our lifes and by doing so,consecrate our praise and prayers.
In Colossians 4:2, Paul gives the direction to stay alert in our prayers with thanksgiving. This seems odd at first until we realize that our spiritual blessings come from being ‘in Christ.’ Thanksgiving reminds us of Christ’s character, what he has done for us both as creator and messiah. When we take a moment to appreciate what he has done for our lives, we remember G-d as El Gibbor (The mighty G-d), El Malei Rachamim (All Merciful G-d), and see him as Jehovah Jireh (the G-d who sees me intimately). Thanksgiving hence becomes a portal into G-d’s presence.
The word for Thanksgiving is the word ha-todah from the root word yadah. It is very closely related to yada’ which means an intimacy. It is thanksgiving that leads us to intimacy with God. If you remove the article you have todah, spelled Taw which is the letter for truth. Jesus said that He is the Truth. The next letter is the Daleth which means a doorway to the third letter Hei which is the presences of God. Our thanksgiving to Jesus for His sacrifice on the cross leads us to a doorway or portal to the presence of God and intimacy with Him.
Bentorah, Chaim “HEBREW WORD STUDY – THANKSGIVING – TODAH – תדה Taw Daleth Hei" XB Software November 26, 2020 https://www.chaimbentorah.com/2020/11/hebrew-word-study-thanksgiving-2/