Praying With Passion

Modeh Ani "It's great to be alive!" cont. from last week...

Simple translation: I gratefully thank You, O living and eternal King, for You have returned my soul within me with compassion—abundant is your faithfulness.

Personal connection: Your life today is not just a continuation of your life yesterday. It is a new gift, a new chance. “Modeh”:  We acknowledge a priceless gift. When a person sleeps at night, the greater portion of his soul leaves his body and ascends to heaven; it returns when he awakens, even though his sins might be such that he doesn’t deserve another day. No matter where we might have gone wrong yesterday, Hashem grants us today - time to correct our flaws and fulfill our purpose. “Modeh”:  We are grateful for another chance. Each new day of life is a precious gift of grace that G-d grants us, with the hope that we will use it wisely.

[Ed. note: This is one of the ways to understand the word B’CHEMLA, with compassion. G-d restores our soul even if we don’t deserve it; even if our soul “objects”, so to speak, being returned to a sinning body. This is a display of His compassion for us.]

Try this: Upon waking up each day, focus briefly but closely on some aspect of your body’s healthy functioning - make note of the images that greet your eye or the sounds that greet your ears, or the movement of your limbs, and imagine how it would be if it were not so. Then say Modeh. We have a lot to thank G-d for.

Word to the Wise: Meaning within the meaning… Rav Hutner points out that the Hebrew word for “admitting” and the Hebrew word for “giving thanks” are the same—Hoda’ah. Rav Hutner explains that the reason these two words are identical in Hebrew is because a person’s ability to give thanks is based on his ability to admit that he is incomplete. When a person gives thanks to someone, he is admitting that he needed that person’s favors and kindness. A person who has difficulty admitting that he can’t succeed on his own has difficulty saying “thank you.” On the other hand, someone who is keenly aware of how others help him is naturally appreciative, and therefore feels more positive toward others and toward Hashem, the greatest Giver of all.

TTreader feedback: I wanted to thank Torah Tidbits for the great new column, “Praying with Passion”.

Please tell the author that I read another meaning into the words “rabah emunatecha” in the Modah Ani prayer. I understand it as our saying to G-d, “how great is Your faith that I will fulfill the destiny that You put me on Earth to achieve.”

Understanding it thusly gives me a lot of strength and affirmation. - CFC

Ponder this: [Ed. note] Have you ever noticed that when we say brachot, we start with the second person familiar in addressing G-d - BARUCH ATA… (either, Blessed are You or You are the source of all blessing), and by the end of the bracha we have changed to the more respectful and remote third person - SHEHAKOL NIH-YA BIDVARO, that everything that exists came into existence by His Word, not BIDVARECHA, Your word. ASHER KID’SHANU B’MITZVOTAV, (G-d) Who has sanctified us with His mitzvot, not B’MITZVOTECHA, Your mitzvot. Why the change? Because after the first ATA, we say HASHEM ELOKEINU MELECH HA-OLAM, G-d, our G-d, King of the Universe. That humbles us, scares us, and we think - how can I address G-d as You. So we change to third person. Okay, then how come we say in second person throughout MODEH ANI? LIFANECHA, SHEHECHEZARTA, EMU- NATECHA. A possible answer is that we say MODEH when we are in our most pristine state of the day. Our soul has just been recharged and restored. We are a new entity with a fresh soul. We can then still be on a more intimate level with G-d and address Him in the second person familiar.

This idea is echoed in a humorous way by the following piece that has made the rounds on email over the last several years:

“Dear God, so far today, I’ve done OK. I haven’t gossiped, or lost my temper. I haven’t been greedy, mean, nasty, selfish, kvetchy or overindulgent. And I’m very grateful for that. But dear God, in a few minutes I’m gonna get out of bed, and then I’m probably gonna need a lot more help. Amen.”

Ed. note: Praying with Passion is the work of Rabbi Heshy Kleinman and his V’Ani Tefillah Foundation. The Torah Tidbits version of Praying with Passion is taken from the archives of the website (see address below) except for the TTreader feedback and that which is introduced as Ed. note.

The mission of the V’Ani Tefillah Foundation is to increase awareness of the importance and power of tefillah and to provide education, inspiration, and tools for more sincere, powerful, and effective tefillah. (http://www.prayingwithfire.org)

• Other Praying With Passion
• P'sukei d'Zimra: Hal'luya Ki Tov Building Jerusalem
• P'sukei d'Zimra: Hal'luya Ki Tov - Building Jerusalem
• P'sukei d'Zimra: Hodu The Power of Holiness