Reflections on Shacharit #1: Shlepping Yourself Out of Bed.
The logical place to begin looking at the Shacharit prayers is with the waking moments of the morning. As Jews, we believe that everything we do, every action we undertake, is not only an opportunity to remember G-d, but to bring holiness in to the world. There is nothing mundane, nothing inconsequential. It all matters, even the way we begin the conscious part of each day. And, being Jews, we have a tradition of acknowledging each opportunity to engage a mitzvah by offering a blessing or some kind of prayerful, contemplative statement. The first prayer we offer each day comes as we sit up and swing our feet out of bed (at least, according to the minhag I follow…). And after spending a ridiculously foolish amount of time too long looking for a good Hebrew font but coming up empty-handed, I can only provide the transliteration:
Modeh ani l’fanekha, melekh chai v’kayam, sh’hekhazarta bi nishmati b’khemla, rabbah emunatekha.
And according to the ArtScroll translation:
“I gratefully thank You, O living and eternal King, for You have returned my soul within me with compassion - abundant is Your faithfulness!”
The same siddur comments that our awareness of G-d’s faithfulness is connected to our awareness of our responsibility to use our lives each day in service to G-d. When I wake up and a new day begins, this prayer helps to remind me right away of the fragility of life and the great wonder and privilege of being alive, and that I have certain responsibilities as a consequence of living this life as a Jew. The mystics teach that when we sleep our souls return to G-d, and that each day they are sent back to our bodies when we awake. So for the religious Jew, the very act of waking in the morning is something for which we 1) must thank G-d, and 2) must recognize as an opportunity to carry out those acts of tikkun olam which only we can.
After getting out of bed we undertake a ritual hand washing. Water is poured alternately over the right and left hands three times, and we follow this with the blessing al netilat yadayim. The washing is a reminder of the way the holy kohanim, or priests, used to wash their hands before serving in the Beit HaMikdash, the Holy Temple in our Holy City, Jerusalem. Once we are dressed and ready to begin the formal prayers, we put on the tallit and lay tefillin, with the appropriate blessings and meditations. We then chant Adon Olam and Yigdal, two very old prayers, before beginning the next section, Birchot HaShachar, which will be the subject of my next post.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of davening Shacharit to my own sense of Jewish identity. Each morning when I say the blessings described above, wrap my tallit around me, put on my tefillin, and pour myself in to the Hebrew prayers with which Jews have greeted the morning for millennia, I am reminded of my place in the eternal line of the Jewish People. But Modeh Ani, that first prayer, reflects something more organic, something more broadly human and less specifically Jewish - the awareness of my humanity, my dependence upon the Source of all Life, and the payback I owe for consciously drawing new breath each day. Before my Jewishness is affirmed by the wrapping of tallit and laying of tefillin, my humanity is affirmed through gratefulness for the gift of life and the willing acceptance of the responsibilities it demands.
Next up: Birchot HaShachar
kol tuv!
Yair
Note: For the womens, though, it’s “ModAH ani …”
I do not start my day without it; it’s a beautiful, meaningful way to start off
Hi Chavi,
Yes, that is correct :)! In all of my siddurim but ArtScroll, the “female” version of the prayer is included as well, or, at least some sort of “Modeh/Modah” indication is made. I’m glad to see that you are using this prayer. Did your rabbi suggest you should, or did you find it on your own?
kol tuv,
Yair
Yair,
Great post! How do you do this every day? How much time does this take in the morning? I could see undertaking this mitzvah on Shabbas and Sunday mornings, but I barely have enough time to get up at 5:00 am, get ready and get out the door to make my commuter train in time to get to work by 7:30 am.
Hi Zachariah,
I don’t have to begin my commute to work until about 7:30 most days, so that helps. But one needn’t daven the entire Shacharit service in order to engage in daily morning prayers. The siddur is a buffet, and some days you have to eat light! Try just doing the birchot haShachar, the Shema and its paragraphs and the Amidah…. or even less than that… I am not a rabbi, but I believe that it is better to do some regularly than all of it once in a while. Technically, to lay tefillin one need only make the blessings for tefillin; no other prayers are necessary to fulfill this mitzvah. So some people choose to have this alone be their beginning.
Right now, several years in to living as an observant Jew, I can daven the Shacharit service all in Hebrew in about 35-40 minutes, but I don’t do the entire thing every single day. And I started by doing a few prayers, just in English, gradually adding Hebrew, then a few more prayers, until I could do or lead the entire AM service. My advice to anyone trying to develop a regular davening practice is to do SOMETHING for each of the three daily prayers, even if it’s only a small amount. Getting in to the habit of praying at dawn, afternoon, and dusk is the hard part. Once you have this established, it’s not so bad to add some Hebrew and increase the amount of prayers.
kol tuv!
Yair
Yair:
Great Post!
I’ve got to say that I envy people who can connect to prayer the way you and Yankel seem to.
As you know, it’s something I struggle with big time. In fact, I find getting prayer done, much harder than keeping kosher and by that I mean (kosher) in and out of the home!
Looking forward to reading as the series unfolds.
To Zachariah
Don’t let Yair’s proficiency and zeal scare you too much. Because as he has more or less already pointed out, the Halachick requirements aren’t that high. According to the two sources I have consulted (one being Steg, an Orthodox friend who is a Rabbinic student and the other being a book written by Bradley Artson a Conservative Rabbi and Dean, ofthe Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies) the minimum Halachick requirements (besides donning tefillin) are as follows.
The Shema = x2 (once in the morning and once in the evening before bed
The Amidah = x3 (once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once in the evening)
And that my friend is apparently it!!!!
Yair:
Thanks so much for this post. My main practice as a Jew comes through prayer, so it is a subject near and dear to me.
Jews by choice are not the only ones who struggle through the prayer service. Even though I went to Hebrew school as a kid, I also struggle with reading Hebrew fluently. I have a Masters in Greek and Latin, and I assure you, reading Hebrew is as tough or tougher than anything I had to learn for those languages.
So getting through the prayer service is a real struggle for me. But it is a worthwhile struggle. My morning prayer ritual, which includes twenty minutes of meditation, is the best thing I do all day and has really made a difference in my life.
I get up way too early in the morning. My alarm rings at 4:46 am and, like you, I swing my legs out of bed, sit at the edge and say the Modeh an’i. I’m almost unconscious when I do it and after it’s done I’m amazed that somehow it came out once again. I go from total unconsciousness to praise of God in 3 seconds flat with absolutely no input from my conscious mind.
I wash my hands, say the morning prayers, and then meditate. Now here comes the good part. I drive to my shul where I have been given a set of keys. I open the door, disarm the alarm, and have the whole shul to myself to pray. My own private chapel. I love going there in the mornings.
There, by myself, I can really take my time with my prayers. I put on my tallis, lay tefillin, and create around myself to the best of my ability a feeling of intimacy, of connectedness with God. It takes me about 50 minutes to get through schacharit. I use the time not only to pray but to really concentrate on and practice reading Hebrew. When I first started out, I’d say about 1/4 of the service in Hebrew and the rest in English. After about 2 1/2 years of doing it now, I’m probably doing more than 2/3 in Hebrew and the rest in English. Whenever I feel fluent enough in the Hebrew I’m doing, I take on more prayers in Hebrew. My goal is to be able to do the whole service in Hebrew by the time I die. But even if I get there I’ll still do some of it in English as I get so much out of it that way.
Once again, thanks for the post, and good davening my friend.
Yair,
I actually discovered it myself a few years ago and thought it was a beautiful way to begin the day and bring myself into consciousness.
Cheers,
Chavi
Hi Yankel,
Sorry it’s taken so long to respond to your post… I was in Florida without internet access, in a place where I could daven in the middle of an orange grove in the mornings… it was great! Anyway, two quick observations from your post:
1) I am totally envious of you for having your own shul keys! :). That must be a nice way to pray. Also, you mentioned meditating for 20 minutes or so before you pray. I think this is a great practice, and it is certainly one deeply entrenched in historical Jewish practice. Rav Aryeh Kaplan (I believe) pointed out in his book(s) on Jewish meditation that the sages used to meditate for an hour both before and after each of the three daily prayers. That’s like 6 hours of meditation and about 90 minutes of davening per day… not much time for being a sage!?!
2) Your approach to incorporating Hebrew in to your prayers is the best way to do so, IMO. That’s also how I did it, and it has made an enormous difference, both in retention and fluency.
kol tuv!
Yair
Thank you so much for this post and the ones that followed. This has been helpful to me. I’ve been meeting with my Rabbi for almost a year now as I move towards converting. Sometimes it seems like there’s so much to learn. It’s refreshing and affirming to see others chewing slowly. Shalom! michelle
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for your comments, and I am glad that you have found my posts on the morning prayers helpful. There’s another one in the works… look for it soon! There is a lot to learn, but as we’re taught in Pirke Avot by Rabbi Tarfon, “it is not upon you to complete the task, but you are not free to idle from it.” Study of Jewish texts and practice is a life-long process, one that is commenced with conversion, not concluded with it. But every bit of Torah you learn, every new mitzvah you engage, is taking your development as a (soon to be) Jew to a new level. Mazel tov on your choice, on having studied for a year already, and good luck as you continue on your path!
kol tuv,
Yair