Jewish Traditions: A JPS Guide

Personal Prayers

Personal Prayers Modeh Ani (yn!a7 hd#om) Modeh Ani (I gratefully thank) are the initial words of a short prayer said immediately upon waking up in the morning. The full prayer—“I gratefully thank You, O living and eternal King, for You have returned my soul within me with compassion; great is Your faithfulness!”—does not mention any of the divine names and thus may be said while still in bed before washing. Short and simple, Modeh Ani is a favorite morning prayer for children who are too young to recite the ordinary daily morning service. Bedtime Prayers Before going to bed, the traditional Jew recites a prayer unit that is built around the Shema and was considered as protection against the dangers of the night (“the demons keep away from him”; Ber. 5a). For busy scholars, the Talmud prescribed adding a verse of supplication (Ber. 4b–5a), such as, “Into Your hand I entrust my spirit. You redeem me, O Lord, faithful God” (Ps. 31:6). However, this brief formula was not considered sufficient for normal use, and the Rabbis developed a more elaborate set of psalms and prayers that, with some additions, has become the standard ritual (Ber. 60b).1 It includes Psalm 91 (“You need not fear the terror by night”) and Psalm 3 (“I lie down and sleep and wake again, for the Lord sustains me”). Some precede the Shema with a prayer beseeching God to forgive one’s sins, as well as a statement formally forgiving anyone who had “angered, antagonized, or sinned” against him, “whether accidentally, willfully, carelessly, or purposely, through speech, deed, thought, or notion.”2 The final prayer is Adon Olam (see p. 471), the last verse of which is, “Into God’s hand I shall en473 trust my spirit when I go to sleep—and I shall awaken! With my spirit shall my body remain, God is with me, I shall not fear.” After reciting the bedtime prayers, the Jew could sleep peacefully. Should he not awaken from slumber, “the Jew had the comforting assurance of having finished his mortal existence with the traditional affirmation of the unity of God.”3 Blessings before Eating Based on the biblical verse, “the earth and all it contains is the Lord’s” (Ps. 24:1), the Rabbis taught, “to enjoy [the pleasures of] this world without reciting a blessing is like robbing the Holy One” [i.e., stealing from God] (Ber. 35b).1 Thus the blessings before eating and drinking are the equivalent of asking for (and receiving) official authorization to partake of divine property. Rather than thanking God, as in the Grace after Meals, the blessings before eating and drinking acknowledge God as the one who “creates the fruit of the vine” or “brings forth bread from the earth,” thus effectively requesting permission to use these divine gifts. For the Rabbis (Ber. 35 a–b), this approach resolved the apparent conflict in the verse, “The heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth He gave over to man” (Ps. 115:16). Before one says a blessing, the bounty of the earth is the Lord’s; however, after reciting the appropriate blessing, human beings are free to enjoy everything that the earth produces. All of the blessings before eating or drinking begin with the same classic benediction formula—“Baruch ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh haolam ”—and differ only in their description of the actions of God relative to the specific item to be consumed. The blessing before eating bread baked from the flour of wheat, barley , oats, rye, and spelt—the five grains mentioned or alluded to in the Torah as indigenous to the Land of Israel—concludes “ha-motzi lechem min ha-aretz” (Who brings forth bread from the earth). Reciting the single blessing for bread at the beginning of a meal “suffices for all kinds of food [eaten during the meal],” except for wine and fresh fruit, which require separate blessings (Ber. 41b). When pronouncing this blessing, it is customary to place both hands on the loaf of bread (both loaves on the Sabbath). The 10 fingers of the two hands correspond to the number of Hebrew words in the blessing itself, in the verse that describes 474 The JPS Guide to Jewish Traditions the abundant produce of the Land of Israel (“A land of wheat and barley , of vines and figs, and pomegranates; of olive trees and honey”; Deut...