By Max Hollander
Judaism has several daily prayer services; Shachris (Morning service), Mincha (Afternoon service), and Maariv (Evening service), and additional Musaf service on Shabbat and holidays. In each service, the central piece of liturgy is the Shemonah Esrei, a collection of prayers consisting of praises of God and requests for Their assistance in everything from health, to business, to peace, recited silently by each member of the congregation. However, among the myriad of requests in the Shemonah Esrei, one prayer offers a moment of gratitude – the Modim – or thanksgiving prayer.
We are thankful to You that You Ado-noy are our God and the God of our ancestors forever; Rock of our lives, You are the Shield of our deliverance in every generation. We will give thanks to You and recount Your praise, for our lives which are committed into Your hand, and for our souls which are entrusted to You, and for Your miracles of every day with us, and for Your wonders and benefactions at all times — evening, morning and noon. [You are] the Beneficent One — for Your compassion is never withheld; And [You are] the Merciful One— for Your kindliness never ceases; we have always placed our hope in You.
Hedonic Adaptation is a term describing how things that bring us joy tend to fade into the background of our lives. It’s easy to take things for granted, especially when they appear routine. The sun rises and sets, our bodies generally function properly, and most of us have roofs over our heads; These are all things we need to live but rarely stop to appreciate. Instead, we reserve moments of wonder for the new, seemingly miraculous or supernatural things/moments in our lives.
The Modim prayer recited three times a day implores us to pause and recognize the miracles of every day with us, and for Your wonders and benefactions at all times — evening, morning and noon. This form of gratitude is one of wonder at the world around us, something Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel saw as foundational to religious life.
Wonder or radical amazement is the chief characteristic of the religious man’s attitude toward history and nature. One attitude is alien to his spirit: taking things for granted, regarding events as a natural course of things. To find an approximate cause of a phenomenon is no answer to his ultimate wonder. He knows that there are laws that regulate the course of natural processes; he is aware of the regularity and pattern of things. However, such knowledge fails to mitigate his sense of perpetual surprise at the fact that there are facts at all. Looking at the world he would say, “This is the Lord’s doing, it is marvelous in our eyes” (Psalms 118:23) (God in Search of Man, pg. 45) As civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state of mind. Mankind will not perish for want of information; but only for want of appreciation.
Hedonic adaptation also “describes how humans become insensitive to new stimuli, and quickly readjust to an emotional baseline. Therefore, the stimulus needed to create an emotion—like happiness or excitement—needs to be more intense than the last stimulus in order for someone to feel its effects,” leading to pleasure-seeking lifestyles that have been shown to be disastrous for our mental health and wellness.
Rabbi Bachya ibn Pekudah, in his 11th-century work, Duties of the Heart, observed that a lack of gratitude inevitably leads to an obsession with materialism. Without gratitude for what we have, we can become obsessed with what we don’t and endlessly pursue the next thing. To that point, it is precisely when we’ve recited nearly 10 petitionary prayers in the Shemonah Esrei asking God for the things that we want but have not yet received, that we take a moment to thank God for what we’ve already received and trust that we will get what we need.
From the minute a Jew wakes up, they are supposed to express gratitude with the Modeh Ani prayer.
I thank You, living and enduring Ruler, for You have graciously returned my soul within me. Great is Your faithfulness.
While most commonly translated as “I give thanks,” Rabbi Shai Held emphasizes the fact that the choice of the prayer’s author to start with the word Modeh, grateful, instead of Ani, I. We wake up in the morning and immediately say the word, grateful. (Judaism is About Love, pg. 42) However, while the Modeh Ani prayer helps us start our day with gratitude, the Modim prayer and its prescription to be recited at different points throughout the day helps us maintain gratitude by offering moments of recalibration and reflection over the course of each day as we go about our lives, helping us stay off the hedonic treadmill so many of us get caught on.
In this spirit of contentment, the sage, Ben Zoma, claimed:
Ben Zoma said…Who is rich? He who rejoices in his lot, as it is said: “You shall enjoy the fruit of your labors, you shall be happy and you shall prosper” (Psalms 128:2)
There is a second part of this prayer – the Modim De’Rabbanan – or the rabbinic Modim. Before the invention of prayer books, the sages established a practice wherein the cantor would recite the Shemonah Esrei outloud for anyone in the congregation who didn’t know how to pray but could respond, “amen,” to the cantor at the conclusion of each blessing, viewing their affirmation of the prayer as if they said it themselves. However, along with the establishment of this practice came a separate prayer to be recited by the congregation when the cantor reached the Modim thanksgiving prayer, written by the sages of the Talmud, that offers similar sentiments of gratitude. The Talmud doesn’t offer an explicit reason for this additional prayer, but the 14th century rabbi, Rabbi David Abudraham, suggested that their reason for asserting that individuals recite this prayer on their own is that nobody can express gratitude for someone else — we all need to express our own gratitude.
Reciting the Modim prayer is an act of Attentional Gratitude, shifting our outlook from one of anticipation to one of appreciation, and helps us maintain a sense of wonder that can greatly improve our lives. Among the myriad of things the prayer lists that we are grateful for, the final thing we thank God for is our ability to give thanks, highlighting how much of a gift it truly is.