B'H
Thank G-d that Thanksgiving and Chanukah will not coincide again for something like 80,000 years, because I have HAD IT with “Thanksgivingkuh” or whatever people are trying to call it.
I admit that it probably makes a lot of sense for people living in the US, but once you move out of goy-land (as my husband calls it) and live in a Jewish country, filled with Jews, and Jewish customs, and even these “secular” holidays don’t exist, you see that there is no such thing as “secular” – there is “Jewish” and there is “other.” The other category has better and worse – the more idolatry the worse it is – but all of it is non-Jewish, and no matter how much you try to find some “Jewish values” in it (again, some things easier than others) you eventually see that still, there is Jewish and other and no in between.
And mixing them just makes me sick. You want to celebrate US secular Thanksgiving? I can't stop you.
But the whole point of Chanukah is recognizing that the wisdom of the nations is DARKNESS compared to the wisdom of the Torah, which is the wisdom of G-d Himself. So please do not put something secular/non-Jewish with something Jewish during the time SPECIFICALLY when we are supposed to delineate between the two! Uch.
That being said it is sorta ironic, since in place of Thanksgiving turkey, I usually make turkey on Shabbos Chanukah. Chanukah is a time for “hodu v’hallel” – thanking and praising Hashem. Hodu also means turkey in Hebrew. And I do not plan on making turkey this year because I have no energy to make anything, let alone a turkey! (btw finding a whole bird here, except in meat places that cater to Americans, is also next to impossible). If I am lucky I will make stuffed chicken. Maybe.
