Modim

 

 

From: Rav Daniel Kohn [mailto:ravdanielk@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2012 2:11 PM
To: Paul
Subject: Re: Modim

 

Dear Pesach,

Very beautiful and meaningful insights! The thought about the ground is especially pertinent, given that, as we mentioned, the issue of the snake and the threat of falling into his fallicies is very present here. That he is punished by crawling and that we bend this way surely means something about that tikkun.

Gut Shabbos!

RD

On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 4:23 AM, Paul <paul@carltonhandyman.com> wrote:

Rav Daniel
I have to tell you some things that were going through my mind during yesterday's shiur.

I was thinking about modim, how we bend from the waist, rather than bend the knees first. In context with your shiur yesterday, modim is a point of shemone esrei where we come to appreciate the land as being in a relationship with us. I was thinking that when we bend over the top half of our body (more spiritual half), it becomes parallel with the ground. Symbolically, this is a gesture of showing that we humble ourselves to the ground as we mimic it by becoming parallel. Curiously this also forms a mathematical 'equals' sign - the ground and our top half bent over.

Modim is also an interesting word in that it is almost a palindrome (spelt the same backwards) except for the yud and vav which form part of Gd's name. The juxtaposition of placing such a word here further emphasises our co-relationship that we have with the land.

One more thing. The gematria of modim is 100, but also contains the gematria of 90 (mem,vav,daled,mem). Two numbers which correspond to the ages of Avraham and Sarah when Yitzchak was born. The difference of yud between the two gematrias is obviously signficant, identifying the presence of Hashem. The appearance of Avraham-Sarah to Yitschak here at Modim i think is relevant (as i recall you saying) in that modim is about finally letting all our encumberances go (like at the akeida, or like giving birth at 90), nullifying ourself and accepting G-d, and the heritage he has laid out for us.

shabbat shalom
Pesach

--

Rav Daniel

 

רב דניאל