The Start of a New Day

Available for over a year

Good Morning ‘Modeh Ani lefanecha’, ‘I give thanks before you’, is the morning prayer many Jews recite on wakening. It is very simple and often the first one Jewish children learn, myself included. For a girl, it begins Modah Ani. For some of us though, mornings can be tough, Mondays in particular. If you are going through a bad patch and feeling stress, the dawn of yet another working week can be a real low point. Our reactions on waking can be those of bracing ourselves for unexpected challenges, not giving thanks! In translation the prayer reads: I give thanks before You, eternal and living King, who returns my soul to me with mercy. Great is Your faithfulness. The ancients believed that in sleep, the soul returned to God and only rejoined the body on waking. I used to find it hard to relate to this concept. It took time to understand, that however low you are feeling, each day is a new opportunity as well as a challenge; one in which you can make a difference to someone, no matter how you feel. You were re-made for this day and this day was re-made just for you. The last line of the prayer, in Hebrew, ‘rabbah emunatecha’ is from the saddest book in the Bible; Eicha – Lamentations. In translation the whole phrase goes: ‘They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness’. It reminds us that even among the bleakest suffering and despair, God promises us support. Lord, thank you for the opportunities this new day and new week brings. Give us the strength to grasp them and to use them for good. Amen