#609: Amida: Modim (Part 5)

family we're on the 18th we spoke about from the historical background to this each of the authored and composed in the were based on a story that happened in the Torah and they comment that the Mal the angel said that was formulated into a br and we went through the told us B on the G story of and the gates closing of thees invoking the image and the Merit of for them to be able to open up once be able to open up once again the gamar tells us tells us that when a person they have to be mindful and present they have to have intention and concentration in each and every one of the bras that we say how thear says if a person can't struggles to concentrate on them all minimally you have to concentrate on one which one so we're accustomed to know and based on one Gea in the gamar might be Aus exactly which one but we're accustomed I'm sure we spoke about it in AOS way back in s Snippets when we introduced the amida that minimally a person has to have kav for the opening of the the famous everybody knows the difference between the the translation of the words and knowing that you're standing before the king but understanding the meaning of the words minimally you have to know for the first bra now it happens to be that the would be if you didn't concentrate on the opening BR you'd have to repeat the amid we pasin today that we don't have kavana it's a pretty depressing thought essentially the poim have concluded that we struggle so much with attention all of us that we're not so confident even if we repeated the we'd concentrate this time so we actually don't repeat it even if we forgot to have kavana but the assumption is when the gar said minimally you have to have kavana for one which is it the but there's an amazing [Applause] writes either you have to have kavana minimally for one the opening of the or minimally kavana for modm for modm and again according to one GE in the understands one this is the is it or is it which one do you have to concentrate do you have to concentrate on the stier also says this in his commentary the there based on that that either or the of and in fact this may be how we understands minimally you have to concentrate for but comes along writes we're praising we're acknowledging we're surrendering to the sovereignty the Providence of so it's not appropriate for you to be distracted not focused not understanding its words says it's possible that mod is also the alternative even if you were distracted even if you struggled to focus if minimally you concentrated for the of then you that you that why would that be why should that be if had to link any two bras of the amid would it be and modm why modm why modm so perhaps you can suggest because modm is essentially the foundation of all of what are we doing when we're about to say modim as we spoke about last time the brings down the mner famously elaborated the notion that every expression of gratitude is an implicit admission a confession that same word of modm of gratitude also means to admit or to confess because when a person expresses gratitude they are admitting they needed they benefited from the other arrogant people struggle to say thank you because they don't want to admit I needed or I benefited from someone else humble people are eager to Express gratitude because the humble person has no problem saying thank you you enriched my life you enhanced my life I'm so grateful to you for it so the same word has both meanings because implicit in every expression of GRA ude is that admission that confession that you changed my life that I'm not independent I depend on you and I'm grateful and I'm grateful to you so that means that modm modm is what all of really is all about that ability to not only say thank you but the humility to say I need you because if a person doesn't believe I need Hashem then why are you daving the whole essence of daving is to ask I Rely I depend I need I can't have any of it without you all the BR all the B all that section of the amida is all about Hashem you are the one who provides you are the one who gives I can't succeed I can't access I can't have any of it without you from health and wealth to Justice and Redemption to knowledge I need you for it all and so that principle the capacity for gratitude which is the same capacity to admit I need you is the foundation the prerequisite to all of so if a person can't concentrate from Mod you can't say thank you if you can't admit I depend on you I need you then what were you really doing then what were you really saying did you really submit and surrender to hem it's not a coincidence tells us that among the places that we bow in daving we bow the beginning and the end the beginning of the we bow we'll see what that means in mod as well you see these two bras are linked maybe by the gamar that says you have to concentrate minimally by one or maybe in the fact that we bow for both but both really are the foundation prerequisite to so every I think I've introduced each one by saying this is my favorite because for that amount of time we're studying it for those Snippets it's my favorite but modm really is a special place modm really is an opportunity to press pause to think about that which we're grateful for not only to think about that which we're grateful for but to be able to to surrender and submit to admit Hashem we need you and that was true for all the daving I did until this point and even if our mind wandered in the meantime even if of us we forfeited we were already gone before we started nevertheless we can come back according to the mission you could still make a comeback when you get to mod