On this Thanksgiving day, in this most unconventional year, I have so much for which to be thankful.

First, I am thankful for my health and that of my family. My father was sick for my entire childhood, and I know that the greatest blessing is to wake up each day in good health.

I am thankful for my beautiful, loving wife and for our sweet, amazing son. The time we have together is the greatest time of all.

I am thankful to live in a time and place of peace.

I am thankful for my G-D given faculties, for the skills, abilities, and education that help me to enjoy the world around me.

I am thankful for our beautiful earth, the trees, water, air, animals, and plants that form a wonderful environment of breathtaking beauty and complexity.

I am thankful to be a Jew, for being blessed with a rich tradition, vibrant culture, and moral code that adds meaning to the sacred messiness of life.

I am thankful for my entire family, my brother, mother, in-laws, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and those no longer with us whose love and support I can always feel.

I am thankful for my friends near and far, for my colleagues all over the world, and for all those I meet whose individuality, diversity, and perspectives add richness to each day.

I am thankful for the material resources that enable us to live comfortably, provide freedom and flexibility for my family, and allow for the risks and options that create possibility and excitement.

I am thankful to be a citizen of the United States and to my ancestors who came to this country in pursuit of freedom. Our country – with its ideal of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, where the inalienable rights of human beings outrank those of any sovereign – is worth appreciating and defending, even at a time where we are keenly attuned to its faults.

I am thankful for hope, where we believe in and work for a future that is better than our past. 

We are thankful for our myriad blessings and pray for happiness, health, freedom, peace, and prosperity for our Nation, and for the entire world.