Called Tu B’shvat, the 15th of Shevat, it marks the time of year in Israel when sap begins to flow, giving new life to the trees. Awareness of our dependence on the environment, as represented by Tu Bishvat and other Jewish laws, is an underlying theme in Jewish law and customs all the way to ancient time.

This year, Tu B’shvat, also called by the Mishna the New Year for the trees, falls on Tuesday night, Feb. 7.

In the 16th century, the kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Luria of Tzfat and his disciples created a new ritual called the Tu B’shvat Seder, based on the Passover Seder. The Tu B’shvat Seder created an order of eating fruits with specific properties, and many that are indigenous to Israel. (Download a PDF of the Seder below.)

Each fruit eaten during the ceremony corresponds a kabbalistic spiritual level: Asiah, the world of action; Yetzirah, the world of formation; Briah, the world of creation; and Atzilut, the world of emanation and Godliness.

Kabbalist’s believe that eating 12 specific fruits and drinking four cups of wine in a specific order while reciting the appropriate blessings would bring human beings, and the world, closer to spiritual perfection.

The Talmud discuses the importance of Tu B’shvat holiday to the redemption of the world:

Rabbi Abba taught: There is no more revealed redemption — no greater indication of the impending redemption — than that which the verse (Ezekiel 36:8) states: “And you, mountains of Israel, you shall give forth your branches and you shall bear your fruit for my people Israel, for they shall soon come.

The medieval commentary Rashi explains: When the Land of Israel will give fruit bountifully, this is an indication of the impending redemption, and there is no greater indication than this.

Tu B’svhat is considered an important day to learn and spread the inner dimension of Torah, wherein is found, according to the Seder, “the greatest sweetness and pleasure of Torah.” The fact that the full moon coincides with Tu Bishvat reflects “the fullness and joy of Tu Bishvat.”

One can also draw a lesson on spiritual and personal growth from Tu B’shvat. Just as a tree is constantly growing so must we. A tree produces fruit and so must we. On Tu Bishvat we must renew personal growth, just as the trees on Tu Bishvat begin to draw moisture from the earth.

I have compiled a comprehensive and easy-to-use Seder for a kabbalistic interpretation and celebration of the holiday, download the Kabbalist Feast-TuBshvat Seder 2012 Edition. Feel free to copy and reproduce.

Call Queen Mary Hotel Reservations: (877) 342-0742

Advance Ticket sale extended by one week until February 3rd! This amazing weekend of music, food and culture is not to be missed. Limited Sponsorships available for residents of San Diego County, The Valley, Soref Campuses, Long Beach.

Learn More on the Facebook Event.

Thursday JAN. 26th 8pm
Nessah Educational & Cultural Center
142 South Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills, CA
(310) 273-2400 ‎

8PM $15 at the door

Cross-posted at Huffingtonpost.com

If you want your restaurant to prosper, give free food to the homeless. This is according to the anecdotal evidence put forward by my homeless friend Yehuda. Yehuda has been on the streets for five years in Los Angeles and can can’t shake a heroin addiction. He lives on small change from kind souls … and restaurants. Yehuda once had a thriving window dressing business and a million friends. Today he depends on people’s leftovers and meals from generous restaurants for his fare.

Yehuda taught me this important lesson when a recently opened, kosher-certified, national franchise shut down, much to the surprise of the neighborhood. The story followed an arc that Yehudah had seen before.

Yehudah began approaching the new fast-food sandwich shop that had opened on his regular stretch of road. They were generous with Yehuda, offering him a sandwich as much as once a day. The food went a long way to sustaining him, and a few other homeless Jews who call Pico-Robertson home.

The new gleaming store was packed the first few months. But as time went on, the crowds became thinner. Eventually, the free sandwiches became less and less frequent. The worse business got, the more they resented him. Soon they stopped giving him food. Within months the restaurant had closed its doors. A successful national franchise, on a popular restaurant block, with special kosher certification, was now a thing of memory.

If this were one isolated case, it would not prove anything. But it was not.

Over the course of these five years, Yehudah has seen other restaurants come and go. The same pattern of generosity followed by hostility accompanied the downfall of all those restaurants. There was one place that chased him out with a broom — they were closed within a month. It didn’t matter that Yehudah warned them against treating the homeless this way. He warned them that their tight fist, would be their downfall. But who is going to listen to a junkie homeless man for business advice? Nobody it seems.

One of the businessmen that didn’t treat Yehudah well, who subsequently opened a new shop after his latest one failed, began to see that Yehudah had a point. He started giving Yehudah food every day. Whenever Yehudah stopped by, he was sure to walk away with something fresh to eat. Yehuda said the business was booming.

I went to check this out for myself.

Passing by this establishment for the last six months, I can attest that the place is thriving. Customers line up for food. They run out of product all the time. The owner is happy, and the business, even in these times when small restaurants are really hurting, is thriving.

Restaurants often chase the homeless away, instead of inviting them to the backdoor for a warm meal. We, the customers, loathe their pan-handling when we are trying to have a coffee with friends. We resent them for interfering with our plans to go and get something to eat, and for making us feel guilty. Let someone else give them a hand, I have heard said too many times.

Prosperity is not deserved, but is a blessing bestowed by God. The Torah teaches that when a person puts out his or her hand, it is a commandment to fill it. Therefor it is not surprising that the Torah’s economic principles can be a lesson to us all. Generosity begets blessing.

Hopefully, someday soon, our MBA students will learn about the economics of generosity, and restaurants that want to have a fighting chance, will adopt Yehuda’s simple business plan.

Follow Rabbi Yonah Bookstein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RabbiYonah

SOPA legislation could infringe on Jewlicious’s attempt to bring a hip, clever, and diverse look at the Jewish world. Jewlicious notes that while some Jewish members of the Senate and Congress are supporting SOPA, surveys of American Jews nationwide would likely show widespread opposition to SOPA.

In response to the debate about SOPA, Jewlicious Director of Media and International Projects, David Abitbol, commented, “We blackened the masthead of Jewlicious in solidarity with 40 of the largest Internet sites that oppose SOPA. We hope that sends a message to Congress.”

Rabbi Yonah Bookstein, Jewlicious Executive Director remarked, “What would Moses do about SOPA? I think that Moses would be against this particular way of regulating the piracy of content on the Internet. Judaism strictly forbids theft, but it also has clear definitions of liability which could be circumvented by overly zealous authorities.”

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For more information contact info @ Jewlicious.com

Of course it is equally probable that a bunch of fearless real spies on motorcycles carried out the attack.

The ethical question about targeted assassination aside – the Iranians are hell-bent on getting a bomb. These scientists are critical leaders in the regime’s efforts.

TEHRAN — A scientist linked to Iran’s nuclear program was killed in his car by a bomb-wielding assailant on Wednesday, a bold rush-hour attack that experts say points to a further escalation in a covert campaign targeting the country’s atomic officials and institutions.

The precision hit in a northern Tehran neighborhood killed the 32-year-old chemical engineer employed at Iran’s main uranium-enrichment facility and brought to four the number of Iranian scientists killed by bombs in the past two years. No one asserted responsibility for the bombing, which prompted a swirl of accusations and denials as well as renewed concerns about worsening tensions between Iran and the West.

And this one occurred on the yarhtziet of another scientist:

The killing bore strong resemblance to two 2010 attacks on nuclear scientists and came on the same day as a ceremony for the second anniversary of the killing of another professor, Massoud Ali Mohammadi, in an explosion.

Invite your friends, family, and strangers in line at the grocery store to this transformative experience!

Any questions? Email conference2012@limmudla.org.

LimmudLA is a community of volunteers dedicated to connecting Jews of all backgrounds in Southern California through volunteerism and cross-communal learning. LimmudLA’s volunteers collaborate year-round, creating learning spaces where Jews can take one step further on their Jewish journeys.

As with everything in Sundance, we have a guest list so that we can reserve spots for people that really want to be there. If you or a friend would like to join us at this exclusive Shabbat happening, make sure to RSVP today.

RSVP Needed to sasha.jewlicious@gmail.com

See you in Park City!

Rabbi Yonah

SPONSORED BY CHAI CENTER
IN COLLABORATION WITH JEWLICIOUS

Before there were a bevy of imitators, Jewlicious Festival originated a unique blend of programming music and fun, that simply is unlike anything else at this price. Thanks to very generous donors, we can offer the Festival for a fee that is simply a steal. Everyone will be there – will you?

Let the greatest Rabbis in the Jewish world go to Bet Shemesh. Let each walk a little second grader to school. Let their rebbetzins hold a girl’s hand and say, “Come my dear, don’t be afraid, I will walk you to school.” Let them, our Gedolim, our Torah giants, look in the face of the Chasidim yelling “Nazi” at little girls and Jewish policemen and tell them to be silent.

Judaism is not monolithic. But in response to violence extremism we must be united and show that this is not accepted – whether it is the vandalism and burning of mosques or the terrorizing of women.

Read more here…

10. Sound the alarm. One day can merge into the next and before we know it January 1st, 2012, will have come and gone. We slip easily into the same routines, the same lives, the same reality. We need to sound the alarm now so that we can prepare ourselves for this amazing opportunity at rebirth and renewal.

9. Heal damaged relationships. Each year we wrong someone close to us and sometimes this leads to an ugly falling out. Yet, we still love this person. We still care for them, but because of egos we can’t admit fault and say we are sorry. If you ever wanted to reach out, but just couldn’t do it, now is your chance. You call and say. “I’m calling to saw I’m really sorry. I really want that in 2012 we rebuild our friendship. New Year’s is a convenient time to make-up.

8. Self-improvement starts with personal responsibility. We all want to become better people and realize our potential in 2012. While we might hope that our New Year’s resolutions will stick, first we must recognize past mistakes and character flaws before we can hope for new resolutions to have a chance. When we own up to our shortcomings, we can truly become better people, realize our potential and have a chance for personal growth in the New Year.

7. Time for an accounting of the soul. Sometimes we are not even sure how to do the right thing. Sometimes, even when we know the good deeds that we could be doing, we are not sure how to start. On the New Year we can search our soul and see what is preventing us from initiating and expanding the good we do in the world.

6. Time for an accounting of the mind. How we think has such a deep impact on what we do. We jumped to negative conclusions, without giving people the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps we stood by when we could have made a difference, and are full of regret. We stayed in abusing relationships. We let negativity cloud our thoughts. As we prepare for the New Year we clean out our head-space from self-doubt and negativity. Giving charity, gifts, and loving kindness helps us actualize the positive impact we can have this new year.

5. Set realistic goals. Audits are exhausting. Now we know how far we have to go after doing these accountings. We want instant results. In our desire to repair our lives, if we start on all repairs at once, we can end up setting ourselves up for failure. Saints were not born overnight. Lives are not fixed in the tick of the clock. It can be harder to change one character flaw, than anything else we have tried. By first establishing attainable goals and then stretch goals we set ourselves up to succeed.

4. New Fiscal Year = New Spiritual Year. This past year we paid it forward sometimes, just not enough times. We were content with receiving when we could have been busier giving. Just as we start our financial year from scratch, we can start our spiritual bank accounts over. We have the chance to accumulate great spiritual wealth this year.

3. Celebrate that God has given the world another year. Our lives do not exist in a vacuum. We rejoice at this opportunity to start afresh, yet we also need recognize how our lifestyles affect the world around us. New Years offers us a chance to reflect on how we can live healthier lives in harmony with our surroundings. We have another chance in 2012 to start healing our lives and the planet.

2. Start on the right foot. We know we should always put our best foot forward, but with the New Year we suddenly forget that lesson. Thanks to a few drinks, we begin with headaches and in places that make us feel sick. Instead of with regrets, start the year with sweetness and joy by being with people who are a positive influence on you. Enjoy one an other’s company, with good food, sweet desserts, and a modest amount of wine.

1. Get more spiritual. The world around us is full of materialism, distractions, and the stress of making a livelihood. Consequently, we don’t make enough time for prayer, ritual, contemplation, and being grateful for what we do have. In addition, we made moral and ethical mistakes that damaged or spiritual lives. This New Year, give your spiritual life a chance to really grow by opening a bigger place inside your heart, and fill it with spirit. When we resolve to lead more upright, and conscientious lives we can come closer to the Divine.

The entire episode prompted another great conversation with my banker. (As one of the only customers at that branch who is a rabbi, we end up discussing every holiday as they arrive in some detail.) When he was early in his career as a banker, he brought in an electric menorah himself to display at the bank. In his native Russia, the thought that you could even have a menorah in a public place was unthinkable. He proceeded to light all the lights at once for the holiday to really promote Hanukkah and his menorah.

The next thing he knew, a Jewish customer approached and castigated him for not lighting them one at a time. This Russian Jewish immigrant, a junior banker trying to make a difference, was being given lessons in menorah lighting at the bank. Yes, we sometimes overlook the good that people are trying to do. Instead we make sure they are doing things the way we want them, ignoring or forgetting to thank them for trying in the first place.

Later in the day I had to go into an adjacent Wells Fargo branch. The Wells Fargo Christmas Tree dwarfed the 4-footer at the Citibank. It was festooned with a myriad of ornaments and candy canes. Arranged around the base were presents, a stuffed fake reindeer and snow, making a real Christmas diorama. I searched for a menorah and didn’t see one. I asked a banker walking by, “Excuse me, is there a menorah too?” She looked around and said they didn’t have one. To which I replied, “well you better catch up with your competition — Citibank has one!”

At Citibank, while the menorah was small, understated, and directionless, it still fared better than Wells Fargo. There may be other branches of Wells Fargo that are doing things differently in Jewish areas. But Citibank made the effort to ship these menorahs to EVERY branch. It didn’t matter if they were in an area with Jewish clients.

I sometimes wonder if my shopping, banking, or car repairing will depend on a company’s decision of how to celebrate the holidays with their customers. Is there some subliminal or outright conscious decision that I make which determines my behavior toward one bank or another? Can a holiday decoration turn me from being a customer to being critic?

Honestly I don’t expect, nor would I want to see, a 7 foot high menorah with golden inflatable driedels — though that could look kind of cool. But I think in this day and age we can expect some kind of token concession to Hanukkah.

Maybe I’ll just leave it to the expensive consultants to offer suggestions to corporate America to tell them if a menorah is a good idea or not.

Or they can take the advice from a Rabbi for free: a menorah of any size or shape is greatly appreciated.

This will undoubtedly be the most memorable Festival yet! Did we mention that it’s on a boat? A really BIG boat? Bigger than the Titanic even! This new venue allows for all kinds of exciting programming possibilities and the entire ship is amazing to explore. We have negotiated great rates on cabins for 2/3/4 people to stay on board in the Queen Mary Hotel starting at a very affordable $99. These actual cabins were used for transatlantic voyages in the 1920s and 1930s and are updated with flat-screen TV’s and all the usual luxury amenities. Pre-sale Festival tickets are just $36 as long as supplies last. So grab a ticket and come aboard!

We will be rolling out lists of presenters, sponsors, and most importantly musical artists starting in January. But don’t let that get in the way of you ordering a PRESALE!

Tickets below!

As many of you know, I have been playing the Jewlicious Festival for a few years, and even when I wasn’t, I decided still to go and play for like a freestyle. I remember I did not know Rabbi Yonah then but I recall showing up in my Nisaan Pathfinder, (which is now humbly parked in a Korea Town parking garage ) unloaded my merchandise and slept under a table in the concert hall where I recently played.

And so with actions like this, I have been labeled as a hustler. Sure its a good thing if you are Larry Flynt, or a hardcore hip hop aficionado, but I’d rather be known (or at least paid more) as a gentleman, a scholar, a curator, and man who transcends boundaries rather than crosses.

A man who runs around and raps sounds like he is on some sort of rap drug. Me on the other hand, I have a plan behind it as a purpose within the Jewish context of Kosha Dillz. Yes there is a deep spiritual meaning behind the ambiguous name and attitude. I bet you are crawling out your seat to see examples.

We need to push ourselves in being independent, as Jews have been since the eternity of time. Being an independent salesman is hard in a field that no one has embarked on . The Jewish rapper who sleeps on floors and needs to sell cds for a living. I want Jews to feel my story and sometimes you don’t want to support my mission. Its ok. I shall be patient I still love you.

Here comes some Jewish rapper guy that’s weird rapping in Hebrew and keeps bothering me. Boy do I hate this guy> i just want to be in my shell because I have other weird Jewish issues I can’t talk to anyone about. Let me put this man Kosha Dillz down and call people to tell them he is annoying, aka he contacted me for a show three times, he HUSTLES aka lets treat him as the Hebrew Uncle Stalker that Lonely Elephant is Stupid!

Kosha you are close. Its o.k. to push and hustle like a mad man. You are a hustler. A great one. You are key to survival 10 people will listen but 5 will say stuff about you that is bad but 10 really support. How Under Scrutiny the Love eludes Rami. People love you but sometimes i forget to acknowledge i only need the approval from G-d himself.

In benefit of winning over a confused Jewish person, or someone who is detached form their own heritage and own birthright, I do things for free because I love being Jewish so much. As a hustler, you never want to do something for free. But then I think of Rabbi’s and programs who literally have to give Jews a bunch of money to do something Jewish, while other faiths like Christianity make you pay $3000 for a trip to Jerusalem, we pay our kids to go and feed them 3 times a day.

Heal up Slowly than Lower every dollar. It hurts that sometimes they don’t believe but we cannot force anyone to do anything they want. Lets just give away a bunch of free stuff so we can do something great in God’s eyes and bring Jews together. Even if it they are not a Jew, let them see what Kosha Dillz is really about and give them a different story they are not used to.

I don’t have a beard. I have a checkered past. I work for myself. I just started dating Jewish girls. Why is my story not as inspiring as others? it is my friends. My journey is too, all you have to do is a have a little trust and I am willing to wait.

In the rap world, you would never think to see the day. I recently was called up to Play Hip Hop Hanukkah with Hot 97 morning show host Peter Rosenberg at the legendary SOBS on De 15th. Do I feel that this is a great chance to play a Jewish event? It’s not a Jewish event. Most people at a hip hop Hanukkah will not be Jewish. THh performers are signed to labels like Stones Throw and Shady Records w/ Eminem. Action Bronson, who is half Jewish/Albanian, has a song called Muslim Wedding and raps about Jewish Mothers. Peter Rosenberg, the face of NYC music, is changing the game by being the Jew on the morning show.

I guess the point of this article is like, why Judge?

Why aren’t there more Jews at my events to really start a movement of supporting the people for where they are at in the journey? Being distant from us or anyone for that matter is the most driving force to keep those relationships far from a bond that could be shared. Just because i don’t have tzit tzit on or a long beard or yarmulke, doesn’t mean my mission is any different. Please remember that when my family was killed as was yours in the holocaust, they didn’t pick and choose neither. Everyone was equal.

respectfully requesting more yarmulke

So grab your friends and check out this great way to kick off the weekend of Hanukkah celebrations. Delicious Hanukkah dishes for those who arrive early! This WILL sell out as space is limited. Only $18 Pre-Sale! All profits go to charity.

Music by NAKED RHYTHM
Sponsored by: JconnectLA, Jewlicious and IKAR
Co-Sponsors: Chai Center, PJA, Jewish Multiracial Network, Jewish Free Loan, JCafeLA

Benefiting Jewish ♥ for Africa, Tomchei Shabbos

$18 Presale $25 Door $20 w/ Two Items of Food for Hungry

The encampment, now deemed illegal by city authorities but a legitimate exercise of rights protected under the first amendment by the protesters, is the last major tent protest in the country. Soon Occupy LA will face the same fate of other tent protests across our land from New York’s Wall Street to the city parks of Oakland. The city is offering the inhabitants 10,000 sq. feet of office space, some urban farmland, and other incentives in exchange for removing their tent city.

Occupy LA is impressive. Five hundred tents form a self-governed community, guided by systems of mutual responsibility and respect, environmental awareness and commitment to non-violence. Solar power provides an alternative source of electricity to the media tent. Clean-up crews constantly patrol looking for refuse to put in the city provided dumpsters. Makeshift showers and city port-o-johns keep things sanitary. Security patrols ensure peaceful relations and protection from outside agitators.

But all this may come to an end by Friday of this week.

The city’s confrontation with Occupy LA’s tent encampment brings to mind the biblical saga of Abraham and Sarah pitching their tent in the fields in order to spread their teachings of loving-kindness.

Abraham and Sarah’s hospitality was their own “protest” against the pervasive selfishness of the privileged of their time. As the Biblical story describes, wealthy city dwellers would take advantage of strangers through theft and trickery, shunning the needy and abusing them. As a result of this bitter selfishness their cities were destroyed as a divine comment on their twisted values of avarice and greed.

By contrast Abraham and Sarah, who likewise had wealth and resources, did not fear the stranger and the poor. They did not hold resources in a tight fist, instead they opened their hands to those in need, and were blessed.

Abraham and Sarah represent God-serving universal benevolence, wrote the 19th century thinker Rabbi Shimshon Raphael Hirsch. Their tent represented a community of universal charity, where open hearts, open homes, open hands and a readiness for sacrifice of time and energy and money for the general good is required.

It is fitting that the Occupy movement has at its center the tent as a symbol and a reality. The tents remind us of the wisdom and spiritual revolution of our ancestors. Abraham and Sarah’s tent was open on all sides, welcoming strangers with food, kind words grounded in spirituality, and ultimately the basis for a community of shared values and ethics. What is required of us now is that the spark of these teachings catch fire.

The economic realities of our time require a level of loving-kindness beyond anything that we have achieved before. Occupy LA’s tents are a call to that human spirit, which stands so much in contrast to the cut-throat world around us. It will be a shame on the city and the Mayor’s office to silence that call.

The message of Abraham and Sarah to the world over 3000 years ago provided a radical shift in focus. It moved humanity towards a spirituality where seeing and meeting another person’s physical needs became a spiritual injunction, a spiritual necessity.

If the protest is moved to an office building, the tents will not be in front of city leaders on a daily basis reminding them and us of our shared humanity: the teaching of Abraham and Sarah that blessing comes when we share resources, and care for each other and for the stranger.

We have nothing to fear from people in tents, we have much to learn from them.

@tabletmag recently released their list of “Top Ten Jewish Tweeters”, who are defined as Jews who have the most followers on Twitter. Topping the list are @pink @chelseahandler and @drake.

This brings to mind the JTA’s 2010 Jewish Tweeter List. This was arrived at my a complex process of anylizing tweeters with Twitalizer, which ranks influence. ” It represents a metrics-based approach to Twitter usage of a select group of individuals over a particular period of time who were nominated by their peers.” Twitalizer reports, “Influence is the ability for someone to persuade others to drive a certain action, be that to retweet, share information, drive action or contribute to charity.” They listed @MASisMore @JewishIdeas and @daroff — but there was controversy. And currently, @masismore has 58 followers and something seems amiss in Twiiterland.

The Huffington post in July published their own list too called aptly “Jews on Tiwtter”. Their list criteria are about Jewish voices. “Here we have scoured the Twittersphere (and our own @HuffPostRelig feed) for some of the best Jewish voices on Twitter. These individuals provide commentary on current events around the world, daily Jewish life, holiday traditions, scripture — even addiction and recovery.” Topping their list is: @dialogueeditor @rabbidan and @recoveryrabbi – their list is dominated by rabbis, this rabbi-writer-tweeter excluded.

Then their are the tweeter analyzers. If you type Jewish into Croudstatus you see that @daroff @jyuter and @yeahthatskosher are at the top of the list.

Klout is another platform for analysis. “Klout is a San Francisco based company that provides social media analytics to measure a user’s influence across their social network.” @pink has a 74, @chelseahandler has 73 @drake has a 90.

According to Klout – the top Jewish tweeters on topic of Judaism topic are: @jewishdaily (clout score 54 @jewishweek (41) and @frumsatire (61). For the record @Matisyahu is 55

According to Klout the top Jewish tweeters on topic of Jewish are: @chabad -(51) @jewishtweets (44) and ….. @jewlicious (58)

For the record – klout lists @daroff with 66, @sarahksilverman with a 76 and and @kingsthings with a 66. Which means that William Daroff and Larry King have the same amout of Klout on Twitter though they have vastly different numbers of followers. And @biz co-founder of Twitter has a 67. Our friend @mobius1ski has a 57 which is not too shabby at all. And all around Jewish pundit @estherk has a 67.

Last but not least, Wefollow has listed the most influential tweeters under topic Jewish as: @jewishtweets @jtanews and @Jewlicious as the 1,2,3 in Jewish Twitterland. And based on number of followers: @jidf @israel and @jewishtweets .

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the everwatchful providence of almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most high God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United Stated States to be affixed. OCTOBER 3, 1863

Thanksgiving was first celebrated by the settlers at Plymouth in the Massachusetts colony in 1621 under the leadership of Governor William Bradford. Washington and Madison each issued a Thanksgiving proclamation once during their Presidencies. It was not until 1863, however, when Lincoln issued his Thanksgiving Day Proclamation that the holiday was established as a national annual event, occurring on the last Thursday of November. The first observance of the national holiday came one week after the dedication of the Soldiers National Cemetery at Gettysburg. (NPS.GOV)