#635: Modim Derabanan (Part 5)

series by the Saka family. modem duraban the modem that is the composite of the different texts and suggestions of several of the several of the rabbis listed in the Gar and it is our way of expressing our gratitude as the Abu Draham said rather than outsource it and rely on the each and every one of us is a for our own statement of our own gratitude even in so we've been going through the text itself first nine words are the same as modm acknowledging Hashem First thing we're grateful for is we're grateful that you're God. We have a God. We are faith-based people. We don't think that we have all the answers. We're not figuring it out ourselves. We're grateful to be able to submit and surrender to the creator of the universe. He's Elou. He's not an abstract God. He's not a concept. He hasn't created and moved on. But he's intimately and an ongoing involved in our lives just as he was with our forefathers. Vloenu. And he's not only the God of ourselves and our forefathers. Locasar, all of humanity. All of creation. And not only all of humanity. He is the source of all creation, the universe, and the cosmos. And as we mentioned, he wills it to continue to exist. If he would stop or cease to will it to continue to exist, it wouldn't. And then we're up to vod seems sort of abrupt or inserted. First, we're describing Hashem. We're grateful to you, God. And then who is God? He's our God. God of our forefathers, God of all flesh, creator, creator of the whole universe, blessings and gratitude to your great and holy name. What are writes? We have endless boundless gratitude for all the things we're about to list. Is not following what came before. It's the introduction to what will come afterwards. We consider the things we're about to say. All the things we're about to say, we're introducing with the words. Everything we're going to list are our blessings and we are grateful for them. And this is because all blessings and all gratitude is connected only to you. Hashem is the source of all. So certainly anything that you consider to be a blessing in your life, he is the source of it. Good health, parnasa, happiness, a sunny day, a cool breeze, whatever you had for dinner, whatever is a in your life, children, whatever, it all comes from him who does and it's deserving of our gratitude in the plural because it's not a singular thing for which we're grateful. We don't say thank you for a specific narrow thing. But when we're in the frame, when we're looking at the world through the lens of gratitude in the plural, our life is filled and the world is filled with blessings and therefore we're grateful. What are we grateful? Number one, to your great and holy name. Why are we grateful for his name? Shouldn't we be grateful for him? We're grateful for Hashem. We're not grateful for his name. So we've spoken about this several times through the Amida and throughout in fact all of sitter snippets because we often reference his name not him. His name is how we know him. Hashem is omnipotent and infinite. He's beyond our capacity to know him. He's incomprehensible to us. We can't understand or relate connect to the infinite. How do we know him? By his name. By how he chooses to be known to us. A name is a description. So how he reveals himself, how he's known to us is how we know him. And that's why we use the word his name or we describe when we're living our best selves and we're fulfilling why Hashem created us. If we are indeed fulfilling our mission, then we live our life making a kdish, Hashem. And God forbid the opposite. If we desecrate his name, if we make a mistake, if we fail in our mission, then we create a a void for Hashem, for his name. Meaning the whole way that he relates or connects, the whole way we understand him is through his name. And that's why we describe not we're grateful for you, God, the great and holy God, but for your name. Your great and holy name. Your name is the way that we're able to access or understand you. how you choose to be revealed or for us to connect with you. What is a great name? He's a great name. You like his name? What does it mean to have a great name? A great name. So, we've defined greatness previously as capacity for loving kindness. The greatness is that he does he does great things loving kindness and his and his holiness. We see these names and kadosh often go often go together. So here he explains means greater and beyond anything we can comprehend and understand capable of everything. He's so revealed in his greatness. He's gul. Hashem your goodness, your greatness, your graciousness, it's everywhere. It's evident everywhere on the one hand. He's gul. We can see his greatness everywhere. And yet as much as we think we see it and connect with it and identify it and can describe it simultaneous to being in God he's kadosh. What is kadosh? It's a good para to talk about what is kadosh kadoshim to you. What is kadoshim to you? Be holy. What is holy? Holy is not a Jewish word. Holy is borrowed from others. What is the definition or translation of the word kad? Kadi kad kad. say we we use it a lot in separate apart distinguished kadosh means something which is holy means that it's separate and apart it is elevated so even though on the one hand you're gul we see you everywhere we see your kindness and goodness everywhere simultaneously you're kadosh you're malrush you're separate you're apart you're inaccessible you're incomprehensible was able to balance those two descriptions great and evident everywhere and separate and apart. Even though for others it would be contradictory, in Hashem it is complimentary.