Modeh Ani ( he, מודה אני; "I give thanks") is a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
prayer
Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deifie ...
that observant Jews recite daily upon waking, while still in bed.
Text
Tradition
Lamentations states that "The Lord's mercies are not consumed, surely His compassions do not fail. They are ''new every morning''; great is Your faithfulness." From this, the ''
Shulchan Aruch
The ''Shulchan Aruch'' ( he, שֻׁלְחָן עָרוּך , literally: "Set Table"), sometimes dubbed in English as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism. It was authored in Safed (today in ...
'' deduces that every morning, God renews every person as a new creation. This prayer serves the purpose of expressing gratitude to God for restoring one's soul each morning.
The specific prayer ''Modeh Ani'', however, is not mentioned in the
Talmud
The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...
or ''Shulchan Aruch'', and first appears in the work ''Seder haYom'' by the 16th century rabbi
Moshe ben Machir Moshe ben Machir (or Moshe ben Yehudah haMachiri) was rabbi and kabbalist of Safed who lived in the 16th century. He is primarily known as the author of the book Seder haYom, source of the Modeh Ani prayer.
Biography
He was the head of a yeshiva i ...
.
As this prayer does not include any of the names of God, observant Jews may recite it before washing their hands. According to the ''
Kitzur Shulchan Aruch'', one should pause slightly between the words "compassion" and "abundant".
In Talmudic times, Jews traditionally recited ''Elohai Neshamah'' ( he, אֱלהַי נְשָׁמָה, "My God, the soul") upon waking. The prayer was later moved to the
morning synagogue services.
See also
*''
Shulchan Aruch
The ''Shulchan Aruch'' ( he, שֻׁלְחָן עָרוּך , literally: "Set Table"), sometimes dubbed in English as the Code of Jewish Law, is the most widely consulted of the various legal codes in Judaism. It was authored in Safed (today in ...
''
*
Shacharit
''Shacharit'' ( he, שַחֲרִית ''šaḥăriṯ''), or ''Shacharis'' in Ashkenazi Hebrew, is the morning ''tefillah'' (prayer) of Judaism, one of the three daily prayers.
Different traditions identify different primary components o ...
*
Jewish services
Jewish prayer ( he, תְּפִלָּה, ; plural ; yi, תּפֿלה, tfile , plural ; Yinglish: davening from Yiddish 'pray') is the prayer recitation that forms part of the observance of Rabbinic Judaism. These prayers, often with ...
*
List of Jewish prayers and blessings
Listed below are some Hebrew prayers and blessings that are part of Judaism that are recited by many Jews. Most prayers and blessings can be found in the Siddur, or prayer book. This article addresses Jewish liturgical blessings, which general ...
References
External links
Recordings of Modeh Ani spoken in different speeds
{{Jewish prayers
Jewish prayer and ritual texts
Hebrew words and phrases in Jewish prayers and blessings