Thanks be for Israeli turkeys

Thanks to internet commerce everyone in Israel has heard of Black Friday, to the extent that brick and mortar local shops are having Black Friday sales (and calling it Black Friday in English, because translating it in to Hebrew as "Yom HaShishi Hashahor" just sounds awfully ominous) and so we have the bizarre situation where just about everyone here knows the Black Friday is a time for sales and shopping but relatively few people have heard of the American Thanksgiving holiday that spawned the whole Black Friday juggernaut to begin with...

Everyone except for butchers and supermarket meat counters in areas with large concentrations of American immigrants that is, where you can go and ask for/order a whole turkey and they'll say something like "Right, for that American festival where you have to eat big turkeys and go shopping, what is it, Christmas? Independence Day? Halloween?" And you can thank American film and tv for them being familiar with that much.

Of course the irony in all this is that in Hebrew a turkey is literally "Indian chicken", as in India the south Asian country, usually shortened to just "hodu" in Hebrew, which yes, is also the word for India, but it is also a conjugation of a Hebrew root meaning to give thanks.

"Hodu Lashem" (give thanks to The Lord) is where Jews around the world are familiar with this word from, as it appears in Psalms and the prayer service, featuring prominently in the Hallel thanksgiving prayer said on special days and festivals throughout the Jewish year, such as Hannukah, Pesah and Rosh Hodesh, the celebration of each new lunar month.

In Hebrew Thanksgiving is translated as "Hag HaHodaya" (festival of giving thanks), so eating "hodu" actually makes a lot of sense if you are a Jew commemorating this American holiday of giving thanks. Especially if you are a Jew with American roots now living in Israel.

Fun fact, last I checked Israel was the world's highest per capita consumers of turkey, except that here it is largely used for processed meats, schnitzels, shwarma and the like, very rarely even a whole turkey breast, let alone a whole turkey. So we are a nation of thanks givers.

May we all merit being thankful each and every day.