Monday, March 19, 2007

How Do We Say Thank You?

(Picture courtesy of Israelnationalnews.com)

I am not sure if this or what I wrote about in the postscript of my last posting were miracles. However, it certainly appears that on two occasions within the past month that Hashem has watched over and protected my family from unbelievable tragedies.

What should we do to say thank you? Is a se'udas hoda'ah warranted for such a thing, or would it be better that we give money to tzedakah?

7 Comments:

At March 19, 2007 at 2:16:00 PM EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tzedokka is always good, I'd go with that. I think someone once asked Rav Bick if he should bentch gomel / make a seudas hoda'ah because there was an accident near his home, and even though he wasn't involved, just the fact that it was on his corner, and he theoretically could have been there, maybe he should do something. So the rav told him, acording to that logic you should have to do the same every-time you cross the street or use a knife...

 
At March 19, 2007 at 2:25:00 PM EDT, Blogger A Simple Jew said...

I agree that tzedakah is a good option here, however your story doesn't quite fit mine since in one of the stories it wasn't speculation of what might have happened, it was quite literally inches away.

 
At March 19, 2007 at 3:03:00 PM EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I say that tzedakah is always great but whats even better is davening to hashem extra thoughtfully when it comes to shema....Ive got a new blog so check it out....

 
At March 19, 2007 at 10:38:00 PM EDT, Blogger Neil Harris said...

Tzedaka is, for sure, always nice. Pirsumay nisa, publicizing a miracle (by blogging about it) is great, too.

 
At March 20, 2007 at 4:40:00 AM EDT, Blogger yitz said...

Hey, I just thought of something. There are many parts of davening [prayers] that give thanks to Hashem. Examples: Hodu & Mizmor L'soda in Psukei d'Zimra; Modim and v'al Kulam in Shmoneh Esre; Hodu at the beginning of Mincha on Erev Shabbos; Hodu Lashem ki Tov in both Hallel [today!] and in Shabbos Psukei d'Zimra. And there's lots more!
Why not give those parts of your davening an extra bit of kavanna [intention]?

 
At March 20, 2007 at 6:39:00 AM EDT, Blogger A Simple Jew said...

Thank you all for your comments. Yitz, I especially liked yours which I plan to do. I also figured that I would give 4 times Chai to Eizer L'Shabbos since 4 people (wife + 3 kids) would have been in the car at that time.

 
At March 20, 2007 at 11:45:00 AM EDT, Anonymous Anonymous said...

give tzedakah for sure. it is hard to justify spending money on something when it can go to others in need.

but, you should publicly declare your hakaras hatov as well - at an aliyah to the Torah, at a dvar Torah, etc.

arnie draiman
www.draimanconsulting.com

 

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