O.C. 1:1 - The Great "Modeh Ani" Debate #1

To most people, the name R’ Moshe ben Machir probably doesn't ring a bell. He was a great Rav and kabbalist who lived in Tzfat in the 16th Century and was a contemporary and student of the Ariza"l and R' Yosef Karo. He is slightly better-known for his work entitled “Seder Hayom”.

The cover page of Seder Hayom describes the sefer as a “very pleasant commentary to the tefillot”. Perhaps this line was written out of modesty, because in truth, the sefer appears to be much more than that. I would say that it is one of the first time-management-for-dummies books ever written.

As the author himself writes in his introduction, time is a very precious gift from Hashem. Just as a person is meticulous with the way that he spends his money with constant budgeting and calculating, so should a person handle his time. Every moment is precious and every waking moment in one’s day should be filled with productive behavior. It is for this reason that R’ Moshe ben Machir wrote the Seder Hayom - to serve as a guide for how to productively spend time each day from the moment one wakes up until the moment one goes to bed at night.

I don’t know how many people have a “seder” in learning “Seder Hayom” (pun intended), but he is quoted from time to time in more contemporary poskim and therefore you might actually be more familiar with his teachings than you think.

In fact, in all likelihood you recall one of his teachings each and every day, because his sefer appears to be the source for saying Modeh Ani when you wake up in the morning. Many people mistakenly think that the “Modeh Ani” nussach that we recite in the morning is a din in the gemara or the poskim. The truth is that it does not appear in this form anywhere in Chaza”l, the Tur or Shulchan Aruch. It appears that the origin is the second paragraph of the Seder Hayom:

The Seder Hayom does not appear to give any explanation as to why we are saying Modeh Ani in the morning, but rather just provides us with instruction to recite it.

There are (at least) two approaches in the later poskim as to what the purpose of this recitation is.

According to the She'lah Hakadosh in his siddur, the reason we say Modeh Ani is in order to thank Hashem for giving us back our neshama. After returning our neshama to Him full of sin the night before, Hashem in His infinite kindness returns it to us in the morning:

The first Lubavitcher Rebbe (R' Shneur Zalman of Liadi) however, has a seemingly different approach to Modeh Ani. He writes in his siddur (named "Torah Or") that by saying Modeh Ani, one is recognizing that Hashem is before him and this helps the person immediately get out of bed:

We'll leave it at that for now. There is much more to say on the topic - bli neder in the next post.