Welcome to Connected, prayer with purpose with Rabbi Eliyahu Farhi. The way our rabbis establish that we should start our day is with Modeh Ani (I give thanks). I think the reason for that is in order for a person to begin his relationship with Hashem, and to cultivate love for Hashem, and to build a strong commitment and drive to do for Hashem—which is really the way we show love—by building up a sense of gratitude for what he has. So we start our day with Modeh Ani lefanecha. It’s interesting that it’s 12 words that we say: Modeh Ani lefanecha, Melech chai v'kayam, shehechezarta bi nishmati b'chemlah, rabba emunatecha (I give thanks before You, living and enduring King, who returned my soul within me with compassion; great is Your faithfulness). None of the words are Hashem’s name, which is why we’re able to say it even before doing netilat yadayim (ritual washing of the hands). We can say Modeh Ani at the very first waking moment of the day, to start our day off with gratitude, build up a sense of appreciation for what Hashem gives us, and develop a realization of the love Hashem has for us, and therefore cultivate love for Hashem.
We’re about to start our day, and we’re going to do things like wake up early for praying, wake up early for learning, eat kosher (fit according to Jewish law), look where we’re supposed to and not look where we’re not, and say what we’re supposed to and not say what we’re not. All of that takes a lot of energy. It takes a lot of commitment. In order for you to have the strength to endure that, we want to start off with gratitude.
I find that, for myself, this is one of my Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) commitments. A rabbi once said that on Yom Kippur, people make these very large commitments, which don’t always pan out as commitments they end up keeping throughout the year. One of the things that I’ve taken on myself in the last few years is that every morning when I say Modeh Ani, I’m going to think of a few different things that I’m thankful for and speak them out loud to Hashem. And that does a few things for me. Number one, it makes Modeh Ani more real, because prayer is only as real as you make it personal. Number two is that it builds up a relationship with Hashem where I feel like He’s present and involved in my life and all the things that I do.
So every morning I have to think of a couple of new things, a couple of things that I’m grateful for. I’m grateful that my foot’s feeling better today. I’m grateful that the weather is nice. I’m grateful that I’m in New Jersey. I’m able to enjoy being in a nice place.
There’s another angle one could also mention about gratitude that is relevant: naturally, it’s much easier for us to feel attuned to pain, to discomfort, to misery, to negativity. We’re more prone to that. You have to take action to bring your brain to focus on the positive. So the first thing the rabbi set up for the day is to think of something positive. When you think positive, you do positive. When you think positive at the beginning of your day, you’re going to make the beginning of your day positive. When you start off your day positive, the next thing will be positive. You just keep doing the next right thing, and your day will end positive. So that’s kind of the concept of why we start off with Modeh Ani every morning.