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Thanksgiving may be over, but the value of a "gratitude attitude" (a gr(e)attitude) is an everyday thing in Judaism:

Gratitude in the Jewish Faith

The very name Judah is etymologically connected to the word Todah, thanks, acknowledgment (also connected to Viduy, the confession prayer which is a stark acknowledgment of reality).

I liked the 12 Tribes articles. For some reason I couldn't comment there last week. Commentaries near the beginning of the book of Numbers, which details the encampments of the Jews in the desert after the exodus is fascinating, especially that of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, who explains the inner meaning of the 4 divisions and what each group, and each of the individual tribe comprising the group, contributed to the Jewish people as a whole. (How's that for a Hirschian, i.e. 19th century German, sentence ;-)

Thanks, Fayge.
I'd like to go deeper into that. I am intrigued by the lessons of the separate tribes for today's world....

There's an excellent book published by Targum/Feldheim by a Rabbi Polter on the tribes.
As for Rabbi Hirsch, I don't have time to begin to distill his writings on this at the beginning of Numbers. There's a new, more accessible version of his commentary on the Pentateuch out, which I haven't seen yet, though I really like the old standard one. If you appreciate elegant writing, it's wonderful. One more good thing my husband brought into our marriage - his 5 volume edition of the commentary ;-)

Thanks, Fayge... I'll check it out.