Happy Thanksgiving!

Please know I am so grateful for you today!

On Thanksgiving, I usually wax on about gratitude and thankfulness, which I feel so much and so often, but this year I’m inspired to emphasize the giving part of the word Thanksgiving.

Maimonides’ Eight Levels of Charity has recently come to my attention at our Interfaith Thanksgiving Service this week, and I thought I’d share it with you, since it is also worth contemplating today. It is summarized thus in ascending order:

8. Giving grudgingly.

7. Giving less than you should, but doing it cheerfully.

6. Giving directly to the poor when asked to do so.

5. Giving directly to the poor without being asked.

4. Giving when the recipient is aware of the giver’s identity, but the giver still doesn’t know the specific identity of the recipient.

3. Giving when the giver is aware of the recipient, but the recipient is unaware of who the giver is.

2. Giving in such a way that the giver and recipient are both unknown to each other.

1. The highest form of giving is to strengthen others in such a way as to make it unnecessary for them to be dependent on others.

Where are you on this spectrum? How can you improve, and ascend the scale?

We all have so very much to be thankful for. How are we doing with the giving part?