#625: Amida: Modim (Part 21)

citiz family and bye for gold on the 18th of the we've been making our way through modm or expression of gratitude the prerequisite of gratitude the foundation of gratitude the same word ma modim means grateful and also means an admission we admit hashem we're not independent and proud we rely and depend entirely on you are our rock you are our shield intergenerationally no we acknowledge We tell the story of your goodness and your kindness. And we last left off our soul that is a that is entrusted to you. So we're up to the words and for the miracles that every day are with us. Every day are with us. What is the word imu? Could you say we're grateful to you and we concede and we admit that you do miracles. We are the beneficiaries of daily miracles from you. Why do we add the words immanu? So the has an interesting interpretation and it's very relevant to this time of year and the we're about to celebrate. The says what this phrase means is not what we classically and typically and we will soon explain it to mean which is that even the ordinary is extraordinary. Even the natural supernatural even the things we take for granted every day are in themselves miracles. It's none other understands understands what's on what are we modem for the fact that we exist that we're still here that our people are still telling a story writes even though in every generation they rise against us to destroy us in every generation they launch rockets and they launch attacks and they wage war and they open many fronts in Israel on campuses and in around the world and We defy all the laws of nature, all the laws of history. The fact that we're still here, that the Jewish people are arguably as strong as ever, it's a miracle. And that's why, says the daily miracle of our existence, the daily miracle of the Jewish people story. That's why in the plural and that's why it's with us. the daily miracle that we're still here today. 10 rockets were launched from Gaza to Israel, the biggest flurry of rockets in a significant amount of time. Halai the last time. And it's a miracle. Rockets get launched at a country at innocent civilians. And it's a miracle. They're a daily miracle. And it's imu says it is a daily miracle with us. And the miracle that we're referring to in Modim is the miracle of our existence. So you don't have to wait for the pesak seder to sing the hisha the old tune the new tune on both tunes whichever tune you singisha you don't have to wait for the seder and aa and pes to remember that every that every day our existence is a miracle in the great words of the poet Jacobi we are a miracle we are a miracle and that's what we're saying the daily miracle I that you practice with us that we are still here that's I will say it novel but may not be novel but it may be the less familiar interpretation. The more familiar interpretation perhaps the more obvious kavana is the daily miracles that hashem does for us when we think they're not miracles person woke up this morning everything's working your eyes your ears your feet your hands your legs you're able to eat and digest and eliminate the food you ate those are miracles miracles. The human body is the most extraordinary factory anywhere on earth created by Hashem Almighty. The fact that we can stand. Just think about a person's height and weight distribution and that our feet, however big your feet are, they're small relative to the rest of the body and the strength in the ankles. The fact that we don't tip over. Just think about the physics of being able to stand up, of being able to walk and be coordinated and bend those ankles that are also holding up and balancing the body all naturally without thinking about it. These are the these are miracles. Ah, they're not miracles like 10 plagues or splitting a sea. It's a miracle they ate, you digested, you eliminate. You know that they're miracles when they stop working. When the legs or the ankles or the hips or the knees give out, you know that it was a miracle when they worked. When the eyes, God forbid, need to be repaired, you know it was a miracle when they worked. That these are not things to be taken for granted. They are daily miracles. This is a famous comment. The Ramban the end of Par's Bamban writes similarly in his introduction to say for the Ramban writes for some it is through the big miracles. Why did Hashem create such pomp and circumstance? Why did he take us out of with such fanfare? Why couldn't he have done it in a more subtle way? Why did it have to be withd with publicized and obvious and extraordinary miracles? Because it's through the extraordinary publicized well-known miracles that that we can see Hashem is not just found in the big revealed miracles. Hashem is in the daily miracles of life. Ramban writes very strong words that a person doesn't have a mohenu in other words you're not part of the and you're not a part of the Torah community and you have no in the Jewish people in Moshe until you believe with all your heart that there is no such thing as nature that these are all miracles and whether it happens collectively to us as a people or individually. And then the Ramban writes this in the context of say is the Ramban saying there's no such thing as natural gravity. The Ramban is denying gravity. The Rambayan is denying the immutable laws of nature that the sun is going to come up. The sun is going to go down that we can already predict and anticipate 100 a thousand years from now exactly what time the sun will come up and what time it will go down. Ramban denies nature altogether. So we'll pick up tomorrow night with a incredible interpretation on of this Ramban by Mosha Tski Damo tremendous who frames this Ramban a little bit differently than we're used to but I think can lend a lot of light insight onto these words these miracles even if you believe in nature within the nature there are miracles that are happening constantly to us and for