Modeh ani l'fanecha... I gratefully thank You, O living and eternal King, for You have returned my soul within me with compassion – abundant is Your faithfulness! It is with these very words that we Jews begin our day. Each and every morning upon arising, we recite these words of praise and thanks to Hashem for granting us life once again. Unfortunately, all too often, we say modeh ani either half asleep, by rote, or with a million other things flooding our minds, reflecting the nature of our busy, hectic lives. If we were to actually pause and think about all that we have to be thankful for, those few short words of praise and thanks would take on a totally new significance. We would feel a genuine sense of overflowing gratitude and appreciation to Hashem for gifting us with yet another day, and we would recite those very words with tremendous focus, emotion, and love to Hashem. Modeh ani would be transformed into the most beautiful, meaningful way for us to begin the day.

The reality is that, as human beings, we get used to things. No matter how great or wonderful something is, over time, we settle in, get used to it, and no longer have the same sense of gratitude and feeling of appreciation. Of course, we may still feel thankfulness, but it doesn’t have quite the same intensity. And so, regrettably, it’s really not so surprising that many of us wake up in the morning, say the modeh ani words of thanks to Hashem, but do out of habit, not with the heartfelt gratitude that we should truly be feeling as we speak those words. However, there are also other realities. Our lives move on and most of us fall into a regular routine. But every once in a while we enjoy very special and precious times... simchos. These simchos can come in various forms: a marriage, birth of a child, a bar/bat mitzvah, or perhaps the wedding of that child. 

This week I had the incredible bracha/blessing of experiencing one of those special simchos in life - the birth of a granddaughter! Tov L'hodos L'Hashem... It is good to thank Hashem and to sing praise to Your name! At moments like these, there are never enough words of praise and thanks that we, as human beings, can offer up to Hashem to express what we truly feel. And so yes, for these past few days (and hopefully continuing this way) my modeh ani in the morning was different, with special meaning and significance. The challenge is to find ways to keep these feelings of incredible gratitude and heartfelt appreciation to Hashem fresh and alive, with the same degree of intensity, over the course of time. Slowing down a bit and focusing on the profound meaning of our blessings is one way to address this challenge.

In this week’s parsha, Parshas Mishpatim, the Torah gives us many rules and guidelines on how to deal with our fellow man in many situations. However, at the end of the portion, the Torah returns to the narrative and description of the events of Matan Torah –  the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people at Mt Sinai. That day of Matan Torah wasn't only a once-in-a-lifetime event, it was a once-in-history event! It was a day of the most awesome, incredible, intense connection with Hashem that we as humans could ever experience. Not only was it a once-in-history experience, it was and is an experience that is meant to last throughout history. Our sages teach us that we are meant to experience Torah each and every day with the same level of excitement and enthusiasm as we did back when we received the Torah at Mt. Sinai. This may not be an easy task for us to accomplish, but nonetheless it is something that we should make every effort to achieve. Perhaps we can use our own experiences of personal simchos as an inspiration. Just as we strive to give our lives extra degrees of meaning and joy by keeping the excitement of our simchos continually fresh, so too we should strive to view Torah in that same light – as something new, fresh and exciting each day – and thereby achieve the ultimate meaning and joy in our lives!