Wouldn’t it be nice to always feel so blessed that your heart overflows with gratitude no matter what’s going on in your life? In today’s episode, Yael Eckstein talks about the importance of recognizing our blessings and giving thanks to God — even during hard times … especially during hard times. Jewish tradition teaches that having an attitude of gratitude is essential in our service to God and is a critical component for living a joyful life. While it can be hard to feel truly grateful when we are facing challenges, Yael reveals how it’s always possible. 

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This week’s Torah portion, the parsha, is called Vayikra, which means “and he called,” and covers Leviticus 1-5. In this parsha, we read about the sacrifices and offerings that were brought to the Tabernacle, God’s temporary sanctuary, and later on in history, to the Temple. As Yael explains, even though we no longer bring the sacrifices described in the Bible, the verses still contain eternal messages relevant to our lives today.

The verses that Yael focuses on this week are from Leviticus 2:4-7, which read, “If you bring a grain offering baked in an oven, it is to consist of the finest flour: either thick loaves made without yeast and with olive oil mixed in or thin loaves made without yeast and brushed with olive oil. If your grain offering is prepared on a griddle, it is to be made of the finest flour mixed with oil, and without yeast.  Crumble it and pour oil on it; it is a grain offering. If your grain offering is cooked in a pan, it is to be made of the finest flour and some olive oil.” While these verses describe the different types of grain offerings, Yael reveals these verses teach us important lessons about expressing daily gratitude and how we can cultivate a grateful heart during the good times in our lives, as well as during more challenging times.

In this episode, Yael talks about how she maintains a state of gratitude in her own life. She discusses the challenges of living in Israel, but how her annual trips to Ukraine, where she distributes aid to elderly Holocaust survivors, help restore her perspective. Yael also shares the Jewish teachings and rituals that help her maintain a constant state of feeling grateful and blessed, including the prayer that she recites the first thing each morning as soon as she opens her eyes.

Discover the daily practices of cultivating a grateful heart that Yael learned from her parents and that she is now passing down to her own children, and how we can incorporate these same principles into our own life so that we can feel blessed, joyful, and thankful every single day of our lives. No matter what.

Check out this complimentary downloadable chapter from Yael’s book, Generation to Generation, about teaching our children the value of gratitude and how you can pass along those principles to your children and grandchildren.

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