Readers of this column might recognize that I frequently devote my November article to the topic of Thanksgiving. As I write these words, we are in the midst of a cold, rainy and windy Sukkot.

There is a significant connection between the Yom Tov of Tishre and the secular holiday of November. For example, Governor William Bradford, in declaring the first Thanksgiving meal in 1621, based the celebration on the biblical festival of Tabernacles. And it is on Sukkot, among the other festivals, that we so proudly stand to say Hallel, declaring many times — hodu l’Adonai kee tov — Give Thanks to God, for God is good!

"Thank you" are among those words (together with "I love you," "I’m sorry," etc.) that we can never say too frequently. Fortunately, in our Jewish tradition, we have the opportunity to express our gratitude daily. We don’t need to wait until Sukkot or Thanksgiving to do so.

Upon waking, it is customary to say: Modeh (male)/Modah (female) Ani—"I am grateful." With these words we begin each day expressing thanks to God for returning our souls to our bodies, in other words, for giving us a new day of life. We then recite, at home or at the synagogue, Birkhot Hashachar — the Blessings of the Dawn, in which we continue to express this same gratitude about the most basic components of our lives.

So, we declare our thanks for having bodies which are functioning to the best of their ability. We are grateful each day for being free (not a slave), created in God’s Image, and for being Jewish, therefore having the privilege of serving God through the Mitzvot.

We express thanks for such mundane, yet truly remarkable daily functions, such as: opening our eyes, lifting our backs off of the bed (let alone, having a bed to sleep in), sitting up, placing our feet upon a solid floor, and being able to stand up and walk. Rather than take these everyday, common occurrences for granted, our siddur has us express gratitude for the true miracle in the successful completion of these activities.

A student once asked: "How can it be considered a miracle just to lift one’s back off of the mattress?" to which I replied, "Some day, when that movement is painful for you, you will understand how miraculous it truly is."

One can only wonder how many times each of us misses an opportunity to express gratitude. Just stop and consider how many people — family, friend, casual acquaintance, complete stranger, store clerk, restaurant server — who perform a function on our behalf, and we might innocently not stop to notice that this action should not be just "one of those things that people are supposed to do," but rather truly an act deserving of our sincere thanks.

For a more complete list of the daily expressions of thanksgiving, please see pages 127-128 in our new Siddur Tefillah L’Moshe. Even though our new siddur is for Shabbat, the Birkhot Hashachar on these pages can be recited every day of the week.