[Avodah] Halachos of Turkey

[Daniel M. Israel via Avodah]

>From the article RYL quoted:

"However, the G'ra says that we may only imitate a practice which possibly
originated in Jewish circles, and was then adopted by the non-Jews."

With respect to Thanksgiving, it is my understanding that the original
celebration was done, at least in part, in conscious imitation
of Sukkos. The article seemed to imply that according to the Gra,
Thanksgiving would be assur, but in general we are lenient like other
authorities. But I wonder whether we could argue that Thanksgiving
fulfills the Gra's criteria.

I also note that the quotes the article brings from RMF are much less
clear cut than the conclusion it attributes to him. I don't know if a
fuller reading of those teshuvos would justify the article's conclusions.

Also, they write: "They may eat turkey because they enjoy it, but not for
the sake of thanks." This seems very strange to me; a perfect example of a
technical reading of the sources leading to a obviously silly conclusion.

The basic question in my mind, which I haven't seen addressed, is this:
What do we say about a custom, originated by non-Jews, but intended to
serve HKB"H? Is such a thing chukkas ha-goyim?

--
Daniel M. Israel
dmi1 at cornell.edu