Modim Anachnu Lach - Everyday Miracles

            An everyday miracle that I experience is that I am able to wake up and get out of bed every day. I am very grateful because other people in the world are not able to get out of bed and never get to experience the outside world. I am very lucky to be alive and able to do all the things I need or want to do. For example: I can go on a bus or in a car to school every day. People who cannot leave their beds must be homeschooled and don’t get to experience regular school. Most people don’t appreciate the fact that they can do these things, and they even complain sometimes! Some people may not think this is a miracle because it is so simple, but I know that it is.

            There is a difference between everyday miracles and other miracles. Other miracles, like in the Torah, are very exciting and remarkable.  But everyday miracles can be as common and unremarkable as being able to wake up and get out of bed, or being able to go to school or camp and be with friends, or other things that people just take for granted.  Miracles like the splitting of the Red Sea do not happen today in the twenty first century. But everyday miracles can and do occur today.

            When I read the Modim paragraph during the Amidah, I feel grateful for being able to wake up and pray at school, and I feel grateful for everything I have and all of my abilities.  I feel very grateful that I am able to go to Kellman Brown Academy and Camp Ramah.  I am grateful that I have friends and family that care about me.

            I think that there is a symbolism to the deep bow that we do during Modim.  During the Modim paragraph, we are deeply thanking G-d.  It is fitting that we bow deeply at the start of a paragraph in which we deeply thank G-d for all of the everyday miracles that occur for us.  (-Melanie, Kitah Zayin)

Oseh shalom uvoreh et . . . ha-ra??

      Isaiah declared that God is: oseh shalom uvoreh et hara.  This literally means that God makes peace, but creates the bad. This phrase was going to be put in the siddur; but why in the siddur would we Jews like to read about how our one God creates all of the problems we have? Because of this, the rabbis who put together the siddur changed this phrase to “uvoreh et hakol”.  This new phrase now says that God not only creates the bad, but he also creates everything else.

Now, when Jews pray, they do not say oseh shalom uvoreh et harah but they say oseh shalom uvoreh et hakol. When people look at this phrase they do not look directly at the part that says God creates the bad, but the part that say God creates the good.  I think the Rabbis changed Isaiah’s phrase to make the Jews more sure of their God, and to say to the Jews that they are not only praying to a God who creates problems, which is what Isaiah’s original phrase says (or seems to emphasize), but also to a God who creates peace along with everything else.

(- Shira, Kitah Zayin)

Blessings for the Good and Bad

We read a text from the Mishnah that tells us to bless God for the bad things that happen in our lives as well as the good things that happen. This Mishnah is very similar to the blessing after Barechu because they both mean to thank God for both good and bad things.  

This Mishnah is definitely something that I really agree with.  I believe that everything always happens for a reason.  When something bad happens,  I think that God has made this happen on purpose because he/she  is trying to teach me a lesson and something good will come out of the situation, but maybe later in my life.  God should be blessed all the time, even when something bad happens because everything happens for a reason.  

          In my life, I have had a special connection to this prayer.  My 98 year old grandma is very ill and near the end of her life, and I pray so much everyday so she can stay alive and be healthy.  I also visit her every month to check on her and talk to her about school, after-school activities, friends, and more!  I pray to God that she is healthy and stays alive for a while.  I was also very blessed when she could make and attend my bat mitzvah one year ago.  During camp I was very sad and worried because I didn’t know if she could make it or not.  I prayed a lot every day and told my camp friends to pray also.  Because I connected so much with God from praying for her health to stay alive, and from being respectful to my elders and doing many different kinds of mitzvot, she was able to stay alive, and I of course, was very grateful. 

(-Gabriella, Kitah Zayin)