Thank you

August 28, 2026/15 Elul 5786/Shabbat Ki Tavo

Hevre/Friends,

In this week’s portion of Ki Tavo we read how the very first thing the Israelites were to do upon entering the land was to bring an offering of bikkurim/first fruits in gratitude for returning home; a simple ritual of “thank you” for the gift of a new beginning.  

While Rosh Hashanah, our annual festival of renewal, is around the corner, dramatic new beginnings occur every 24 hours. Whats the first thing you do when you open your eyes in the morning?  Hit snooze on your alarm? Something you don’t want to share out loud? (Thank you for your restraint.) Grab your phone to check email or the headlines? (Who has the attention span to actually read a whole article these days? Will you even make it to the end of this post?)

Jewish tradition says the first thing you do when you open your eyes is to say, “Thank you”; the Modeh Ani prayer. One of the most oft-repeated prayers in any religious practice is “Thank you”. Gratitude is, on the one hand, the most obvious and instinctive response to the gifts of love and family, and, on the other, it’s something that can easily elude our attention when we start each day overwhelmed with how much we have to do and be and accomplish. Maybe for this reason the Code of Jewish Law instructs us to “Be strong as a lion when you wake up in the morning to serve your Creator; get up early enough to welcome in the dawn.” As the thinking goes, if you win this battle, the rest of the day should be manageable.

There is much we take for granted, especially the simple wonder of each new day. It can be hard to get out of bed, face the day’s challenges and responsibilities, and instantly have something profound to say! It’s no wonder that a discipline of gratitude has been said to refine the soul, keep us humble and mindful of the bounty of blessings we hold. But in these days of intense polarization, uncertainty, and vulnerability, gratitude can be one of the hardest things to cultivate. And yet, it remains more important than ever.

 מוֹדֶה אֲנִי לְפָנֶיךָ מֶלֶךְ חַי וְקַיָּם, שֶׁהֶחֱזַרְתָּ בִּי נִשְׁמָתִי בְּחֶמְלָה. רַבָּה אֱמוּנָתֶךָ

Modeh/Modah ani lefanecha melech chai vekayam, she-he-chezarta bee nishmatee b'chemla, raba emunatecha

Thank you for mercifully giving me back my soul. Your faithfulness is great.

A few months ago I learned that these words not only express our thanks for the gift of another day, but for the opportunity to live it better than we did yesterday.  “Modah” not only means “thanks” but also means “acknowledge”.  

When we say it we’re acknowledging that no matter who I was yesterday - whether I made mistakes or I triumphed over a baser instinct  - I will embrace the chance to live today with even greater purpose

I had the privilege of hearing Rachel Goldberg-Polin explain her understanding of the phrase “Rabbah Emunatecha/ Your faithfulness is great.” With all of the pain and suffering Rachel has endured over the abduction and murder of her son Hersh, z”l, by Hamas terrorists,  she nonetheless hears these words guiding her to say, “Your faith in me in abundant! You gave me back my soul because You believe I am not done. In spite of it all, You have confidence in me that I have more to do here. I have more to contribute.”

Sitting next to her, Rachel’s husband, Jon, deepened this lesson with a story from a morning walk he and his daughter had taken a few weeks earlier in their Jerusalem neighborhood. You can imagine how hard it is for this family to go anywhere in Israel without being stopped by people still eager to offer them a hug or some expression of comfort. A man, a complete stranger, ran up to them and asked for a moment of their time. He showed them his phone’s homescreen which was a picture of Hersh. He shared that, like so many of us, the first thing he does when he wakes up each morning is reach for his phone. But instead of losing himself doomscrolling through news sites or social media, he instantly encounters a picture of Hersh and is reminded of the tragic story of his fate. Because of that, the first thing this man says to himself each morning is: What can I do today to make this world a better place? To help ensure that Hersh did not die in vain? 

In addition to waking up filled with thanks for the gift of a new day, what picture or practice do you need to embrace in order to wake up with this most urgent of questions: what can I do today to bring more love and healing to our broken world? What do I still have left to do with my life? What is the world waiting for me to do that I have not yet done?

Who knows how many more mornings any of us will have to be privileged enough to even ask the question. The Season of Awe that we’ve entered now with this month of Elul reminds us that no one knows the answer to that question. Any one of our new mornings might be our last.

In his magnificent book, The Wild Edge of Sorrow, Francis Weller shares that he wakes up each morning and says to himself: Today I am one day closer to my death. How do I want to live this day?

How do you, indeed?

Shabbat Shalom,

Dini

Photo by Ronen Avisror