Modim: thanks

Even the great Sages drifted

The Yerushalmi (the Gemara written in the Land of Israel) has an honest passage about concentrating in prayer. Rabbi Chiya the Great says he never really managed it. The one time he tried, he caught himself wondering who gets let in to see the king first. Shmuel says he was counting chicks. Rabbi Bun says he was counting rows of stones. Then Rabbi Matanya says: I am grateful to my head, because when I get to Modim, it bows by itself.

Why the thank-you comes near the end

In the Gemara, Rabbi Chanina compares the Amidah to a servant before his master. In the first three blessings the servant is arranging praise. In the middle blessings he is asking for a gift. In the last three he has received the gift and is leaving. That is why, says Rav Yehuda, you do not ask for your own needs in the first three or the last three. Modim sits in that last group.

Only the living can say thank you

Abudarham (the 1300s commentary on the prayers) cites a midrash that asks who actually gives thanks, and answers: the one who is alive. The proof is Yeshayahu 38:19, "The living, the living, he thanks You, as I do today." The verse before it says the grave cannot thank You. The speaker is King Hezekiah, after he recovered from an illness. That, Abudarham says, is why the blessing says near its end, "All the living will thank You."

Bow here, not at every thank-you

A teaching quoted in the Gemara says you bow at the start and the end of the thanks blessing. Another teaching calls bowing in the thanks blessing wrong. Rava bowed at the start and end of this blessing because he had seen Rav Nachman and Rav Sheshet do it. When this was challenged, the Gemara answered that the teaching against bowing is about the thanks in Hallel (the psalms of praise), or about the thanks blessing in Birkat HaMazon (the blessings after a meal). How to bow is covered in the Avot prayer.

The Yerushalmi's version

The Yerushalmi's versions of the quiet Modim end with Hashem's name (see the note on the last line). One of them, by Bar Kappara, opens: "To You belong the bowing, the bending, the prostrating, the kneeling." Abudarham says the Rosh (Rabbi Asher, a Sage in Germany and Spain who died in 1327) ended the quiet Modim the Yerushalmi's way, with the Name.

Why a snake?

The Gemara says that seven years after a person dies, his spine turns into a snake, but only if he did not bow at Modim. The Maharal (Rabbi Yehudah Loew of Prague, who died in 1609) explains why a snake. Before it was cursed, the snake walked upright like a king, and so does a human being. It tempted people not to bow to God, and its curse was to lose its upright posture. A person who bows sets his own kingship aside before God, so there is nothing left in him that resembles the snake.

הנחש היה הולך בקומה זקופה שהיה מלך שבחיות... כי האדם אף על גב שהוא בקומה זקופה והוא דומה למלך מקבל את השם יתברך עליו לאלוה וכורע לפני מלכו

Thanks grows with the gift

Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) explains an early morning line, "So we must thank You and praise You." Thanks comes from recognizing the good itself. The bigger the gift, and the better you see it, the bigger the thanks. Thanks can come even when the gift says nothing about how great the giver is. Praise starts when the gift shows who the giver is. Now read Modim's "we thank You and tell Your praise" again, and look for what you were given.

ההודאה על הטובה תבא אפילו כשהטובה... אינה מורה על גדולה ומעלה עליונה של המיטיב

You can say yes without understanding

Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (the founder of Chabad Chassidut, who died in 1812) separates two words. A blessing, bracha, brings something from hidden to revealed. Hoda'ah, the word behind Modim, is simpler. It means admitting that something is true, even if your mind cannot grasp it. His example is this line: even without fully understanding, we admit to You that You are Hashem our God.

והודאה הוא ענין שמודה על האמת שכן הוא אף אם הוא אינו משיג בשכלו

Two kinds of miracles in one line

The prayer thanks God for "Your miracles that are with us every day" and for "Your wonders and good gifts at every moment." The Ben Ish Chai (Rabbi Yosef Chayim of Baghdad, who died in 1909) says these are two different things. The miracles are the open ones. The wonders are the hidden ones, where the person it happens to does not even notice. They come "at every moment" because hidden miracles never stop. His example is the Asher Yatzar blessing: if one of the body's openings closed or opened wrongly, you could not last an hour.

על נסיך שבכל יום עמנו הכונה על נסים הגלויים, ומ"ש ועל נפלאותיך קאי על נסים הנעלמים ונסתרים שאין בעל הנס מכיר ניסו

The chazan is repeating the Amidah. What do I say at Modim?

You bow with him and say Modim DeRabbanan, the congregation's own version. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) rules this, and ends it "Blessed is the God of thanks," without Hashem's name. The chazan (prayer leader) does not wait for you; he keeps praying (Mishnah Berurah, a standard commentary from around 1900). If the chazan prays out loud together with everyone, with no repetition, the Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s) says the practice is not to say it.

How low do I bow during the chazan's Modim?

The Mishnah Berurah says to bow as in any other bow, and Peninei Halakhah (a modern guide to Jewish law by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed) agrees: the rules match the bow in your own Amidah. So not so low that your mouth is at your belt (Shulchan Aruch 113:5). The Kaf HaChaim adds: bow as the chazan does if you are following his repetition. If you are elsewhere, say in the verses of praise, and only hear him reach Modim, bowing your head is enough.

Do I stay bowed for all of Modim DeRabbanan, or bow again at the end?

Customs differ. The Shulchan Aruch says one view bows again at the end, and calls it good to heed. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi custom to it) notes that some say the whole thing in one bow, and that is the custom. Peninei Halakhah says the common custom is one bow, at the start, which was also the custom of the Ari (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the great Kabbalist of Safed).

At Modim in my own Amidah, how do I go down and come up?

The Shulchan Aruch: go down fast, in one motion, and come up gently, head first and then body, so the bow does not feel like a burden. You bow twice here, at the start and at the end (Mishnah Berurah 113:1). At the word Modim, the Mishnah Berurah says to bend your head and body together in one motion and stay down until you reach Hashem's name, then rise. At the closing line, bow at Baruch and rise at the Name. The Avot prayer has how low to go.

It is Chanukah and I forgot Al HaNissim. Do I start over?

No. The Shulchan Aruch says Al HaNissim goes in this blessing all eight days, and if you forgot, you do not go back. But if you remember while still inside the blessing, before you say Hashem's name at its end, you go back and say it. The Rema says the same for Purim. The Mishnah Berurah adds that you can say a request, "May the Merciful One do miracles for us," at the end of the Amidah, before the closing verse Yihyu Leratzon.