The Great Thank You- P’shat
Gratitude
When we examine this prayer that a Jew says upon awakening, we will discover that it too, as all parts of Torah, has at least four ways of looking at it.
Modeh Ani, is the first prayer that is recited as soon as we awaken, even before our hands are clean. It has no mention of G-d’s name and can therefore be said even when our bodies are not yet ready for prayers that do have G-d’s name in them.
Modeh Ani translates as:
I gratefully acknowledge the living and eternal king, for having restored my soul within me, great is your faithfulness.
From the level of P’shat, Modeh Ani is our expression of gratitude to G-d for having given us another day of life.
That we should express our gratitude to G-d for all that He does for us is axiomatic in Judaism. Every day, we are required to thank G-d for all the things that we experience in the morning. We thank Him for opening our eyes, standing straight, the ability to walk etc. The first and most basic expression of gratitude – the P’shat – is thanking G-d for just being alive, particularly after going through a period of sleep when the relationship of our body to our soul is most tenuous.
When we awaken in the morning, we feel the precariousness of our life and we therefore are impelled to say Modeh Ani, the great thank you, even before we had a chance to wash our hands, get out of bed, etc.
The First [Real] Sin
The very first sin committed by Adam of his own volition was his lack of gratitude.
Eating of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge was actually the first sin he committed. However, our Sages tell us that G-d Himself orchestrated this sin. Adam, left to his own devices would never have succumbed to the pressure of the serpent. G-d wanted man to have the struggle with evil so he allowed Adam and Eve to fall prey to the serpent, whose evil was internalized within humanity.
Once Adam had both his good impulse and evil impulse intact, he failed his first test. When G-d confronted him after eating the forbidden fruit, Adam responded in his own defense, “The woman You gave me gave me this fruit and I ate of it.” He blamed G-d for His sin, showing a lack of gratitude for the gift of Eve, a helpmate.
From this we ca see that humanity’s biggest struggle, set into motion at the very beginning of time, was to show gratitude to G-d and others for all that we get from them.
In the Messianic Age, our Sages inform us, we will only have one sacrifice to bring: a thanksgiving offering. We will have one Psalm left to recite, Psalm 100, A Psalm of Thanksgiving!
We thank G-d for the most routine aspects of life just as we express special thanks when miracles occur.
Gratitude is the underlying theme in so many of our prayers. Shacharit begins with the word Hodu-give thanks. The Amidah prayer has one blessing beginning with the word “Modim anachnu lach-we give thanks to You.”
Before we partake of any food, before we retire to bed, after eating a meal and whenever we experience a miracle.
But, of all our expressions of gratitude, Modeh Ani is arguably the most basic and significant, so much so that we recite it even when we are ritually impure and cannot recite any other prayer.
This is the simple, straightforward and basic understanding of the prayer Modeh Ani.
From the book Safe Kabbalah, Part Two: The Fourth Dimension by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
