As Americans, every year on the last Thursday of November, sometime between Macy’s parade and the kickoff of a significant football game, we gather together to give thanks for God’s blessings on our country.

Embracing our national minhag, we circle the table of bounty with family and friends, and we pause to recall the many ways in which those blessings manifest themselves to us as citizens. Many of us follow the tradition of asking each person at the table to recall specific instances and people for which we are grateful.

But as Jews we don’t have to wait for that once-a-year day in which to rejoice over our many good fortunes. We can experience the joy of giving thanks in every service, particularly during the Amidah when we pray the Modim. At TBS we usually say some form of this beautiful prayer in English, which like this:

We gratefully acknowledge that You are Adonai our God and our ancestors’ God for ever and ever. You are the rock of our lives and the shield of our salvation from generation to generation. We gratefully acknowledge You by rendering your praises, for our lives, which are in your hands, and for our souls, which are entrusted to You, and for your miracles that are with us on each day, and for the wonders and goodness at every time, evening, morning, and afternoon. You are good, for your mercy never ceases. You are merciful, for your kindness never ends. You have always been our hope.

On Chanukah, Purim and between the High Holy Days we add extra sentences to the Modim to thank God for specific instances of preserving our people and writing our names in the Book of Life.

The very fact that the Rabbis who wrote the siddur felt that at certain times the Modim was incomplete makes me think it’s okay to add our own thoughts of thanksgiving to the prayer at any service, if there is something for which we are particularly thankful. I’m not talking about a free-for-all, where everyone calls out their own thanks to God (although . . . that might be a neat thing to do sometime if we were to pass the microphone through the congregation.)

No, what I mean is whenever we say the “official” Modim, we can thank God silently for the many goodnesses in our lives that the prayer does not specifically mention.

Thank you, God, for our congregation, and the fact that we have a Jewish home in Polk County. Thank you for the volunteers who make it possible: our board, our religious school teachers, our committee members and the many others who rush to help whenever help is needed. Thank you for our donors, who sustain us financially. Thank you for the people who work behind the scenes and who rarely appear at services, but who contribute hours and dollars to the temple, who live Jewish lives and in so doing perpetuate our community. Thank you for the parents who bring their children to religious school and are raising Jewish families. Thank you for our students and our children: they are our future. Thank you for our two Rabbis, who between them have about 100 years of pulpit experience from which we benefit tremendously. Thank you, God, for the love we share as a temple family, and the fact that even when we have bitter differences amongst ourselves, we are willing to work together towards the common good of the temple, and towards maintaining peace within our TBS mishpacha. Thank you, God, for Temple Beth Shalom.