#636: Modim Derabanan (Part 6)

is sponsored by family for we are up tom the modem that we respond when thehat says his modem we don't rely on we don't outsource our gratitude we express our own gratitude in our own way because the person who truly feels grateful doesn't rely on someone else to communicate it person who's truly grateful says it themselves directly and so we offer our own modem while the kazan says his each of us is a in that sense. And so we've been making our way through these words and we say we recognize that all the blessings in our life in the plural from when we wake up all that we take for granted all that we're gifted all that we're blessed with all the gratitude we have is directed to your great and holy name God we don't know you we know you through your name and our mission is to sanctify your name we all said already twice today in kadusha that we are prepared prepared to fulfill our mission and our mandate which is to sanctify your name God. That's why I'm here. That's my mission. That's my purpose. That's what my life is about. To redeem this world, repair this world. It's not what I can take. It's what I can give. It's not what are my rights and entitlements. It's what are my duties and obligations. How can I represent your brand? How can I represent your name? How can I advance your name and elevate your name in this world? And therefore, our gratitude is to your great and your holy name. And what am I so grateful for? Means you gave me you gave me life. We wouldn't exist. We wouldn't be here if not for Hashem giving us life. He is the source of our existence. He's the source of our birth. He's the source of our life. And the truth is, if a person stops for one moment and contemplates how much had to go right for you to be here, I don't just mean every healthy baby is a miracle, which they are, which they are. I've told the story before about my friend's father, actually, Rabbi Dr. Gil Pearl's father, who runs the NICU at a hospital in Tene, who was once giving a tour to several prominent doctors who took care of pediatric uh emergency patients. And he showed them in the NICU, this baby is only this many weeks old. This baby was born with their organs on the outside. This baby challenged with this. The doctors commented, "Wow, what a miracle. It's a miracle. You can keep these babies alive." He said, "Oh, you want to really see the miracle babies?" He said, "Yeah, show us the miracle babies." He said, "Good. Come with me." And he took them from the NICU into the nursery, the healthy babies, the babies who were born with nothing wrong. And he said, "These are the miracle babies. the fact that we're here, we exist, we're born, if we have our faculties, if everything's working, if we're gifted and granted a healthy life, it's a miracle. But even more so, when you think about, if you look back on your own family history, what had to go right for your mother and father to meet each other in our generation? What had to go right for your grandparents to survive wherever they were? What had to go right? Trace your history back. Look at your own parents and grandparents and think about how many variables there were and what had to go right just for you to exist. So, Hashem, we're grateful to you just that we exist, just that we're here, just that we have what we have. And so, we turn to you and say I'm not only did you give us life, then you sustained life. You sustained life. Could have said, "I'm giving you life. I'm making you. I'm depositing you in this world. Good luck to you. figure it out. But more than just create us and drop us off. He doesn't just deposit us in this world and say figure it out. He helps sustain us. He helps sustain us emotionally, spiritually, and physically. He helps sustain us even as we navigate this place called life. This is the same language we use in the of Yanu. When we eat a new fruit or wear new clothing or buy a new car or observe if we haven't in a year, we make we acknowledge God. You gave us you gave us lifeu and you sustain us. You help us continue to live. So we acknowledge it's what happened in the past. It's what happened that got us to now. So not only do we say in the past tense So please continue to do it. Please continue to give us life and continue to sustain our lives. And all of a sudden we pivot and we say you gave us life. You sustain life. Please continue to give us life and sustain life and gather us all the exiles to what's the courtyard of your holy place. Where is that? Shalim, all of you shalim in this context is like the courtyard of your bases mikt. You shall the extended city of your shalim is like the extended courtyard of your holy ba mikdash of your holy temple. Why do we acknowledge God? You gave us life and you sustain it. Gather all the exiles and bring us to your holy city. What does one have to do with the other? It's like a non sequator. It's not connected. What does one thing have to do with the other? So I was thinking it occurred to me maybe now we're describing what does it mean for you to sustain our life. Thank you for giving me life. Please sustain my life. And how do you sustain my life? By bringing us all together. We need redemption. We need to be unified. We need to be united. We need to be connected to our holy city and our holy land. So, Hashem not only continue to give me lifeu doesn't just mean, you know, figure out the stock market, figure out my net worth, figure out my income, let me continue to be healthy, figure out my my hips and my knees and my ankles doesn't just mean help to sustain me. Part of our kim as gather our exiles to your holy we are incomplete and we can't be sustained. We're not happy and we don't have our future if we're not together. To be united to be united and to be together and to gather us, gather us together and let us feel united. What will we do with that? Why is that the very fulfillment of to sustain us? What will we do with that? If indeed we're blessed to be united, to have an in gathering of the exiles, to be interconnected, to return to our home, what will we do with it? That's what we continue with. and we'll pick up next time. We want it and so on and so forth. Then we tell Hashem, we negotiate. If you do that for us, here's what we'll do with it that will make it worthwhile. will pick up with