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)