Reflections on Ritual – February 2026

Reflections on Ritual – February 2026

Modeh Ani. I am grateful.

“Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living.” In a single sentence, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel eloquently explained why we pray and what we seek when we pray. Through prayer we praise our creator, we request fulfillment of our needs and we give thanks. But it’s never quite that simple. The idea of prayer can feel irrational in a rational world and even off-putting. When we read prayers from the Siddur, it’s tempting to resist and even argue with words that sometimes feel irrelevant and ancient. Even the most poetic words are lifeless unless we’re able to find personal meaning in them.

For me at least, the most accessible prayers are those in which we give thanks. One example is the part of the Amidah when we say “modim anachnu loch” (we give thanks to You). In our congregation, Rabbi Harrison has initiated a wonderful minhag (custom), that enables us to feel awakened gratitude for countless blessings in our lives. It happens once each month when she asks us to reflect and share those things we’re grateful for: healing, health, family, community, anniversaries, memories and endless surprises of living.
Another of my favorite prayers expressing gratitude is one of the shortest and easiest to understand, with compelling personal meaning as we experience the miracle of awakening each morning.

This prayer is traditionally said immediately upon waking in the morning: “I thank you, living and eternal sovereign, for your kindness in restoring my soul. How great is your faithfulness.” In Hebrew, one says, “Modeh ani l’fanecha, melech chai v’kayam, shehechezarta bi nishmati b’chemlah; rabah emunatecha.”

This prayer, composed by Moshe ibn Machir in the 16th century, is unique in several respects. It is intimate, phrased in the first person singular: “I thank you . . .” In most of our prayers we say “we.” And notice, too, that it does not include the name of God, since tradition forbids saying God’s name before washing one’s hands.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks observed that waking is a “miniature rebirth,” and so the prayer is recognition that life is a gift from God, as we prepare to celebrate and sanctify each day.
I recently found a beautiful interpretation of the prayer in the online “Open Siddur Project,” as lovely as the original prayer:

A Kavvanah for Waking Up, by Andrew Shaw

In these still, quiet moments,
I am not asleep and not yet awake.
In the threshold of day and night, with the mixture of darkness and light,
my body is once again coming to life.
I am reborn, each day, from the womb of your compassion.
May all of my actions be worthy of the faith You’ve placed in me.
With words of thanks I’ll greet the dawn.

Here’s another gem in the “Open Siddur Project” on “modeh ani” composed by Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi, z”l:

Modeh Ani – an interpretive translation

Thank You, Living God
And Master,
For giving me
Another day of awareness.
I thank You
For this sacred trust.

The great Sefardic poet and philosopher Yehudah Halevi (1075-1141) wrote a reflection that captures the sense when we wake up that we may perhaps glimpse the divine within.

My Soul – Yehudah Halevi

On the day that I searched for God – for I could not see the Divine –
I turned to my heart and my mind and found Your throne within.
A witness to You in me.

Such are prayers of gratitude. “Our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living.”

Be well. L’hitraot. Zeit gezunt.

Stephen Freed, Ritual Committee