מודה אני
Modeh Ani
The Blessing upon Arising
"In the service of the Almighty, the point of departure is Modeh Ani"
-- Rabbi Sholom Dov Ber of Lubavitch
WHEN WE AWAKEN IN THE MORNING, G-d graciously restores our soul (nefeshwithin us in order to experience another day of life.
Every morning we recite the Modeh Ani blessing. It is both a blessing and a prayer of faith.
מודה אני לפניך מלך חי וקיים שהחזרת בי נשמתי בחמלה. רבה אמונתך
"I thank you, living an eternal King, for returning my soul within me in compassion. Great is your faithfulness."
It is a lovely prayer, and a lovely reminder.
“Returning my soul within me”_ is also an expression of the Triune nature of our conscious existence.
However it arouses certain questions in my mind for it seems to me that “returning my soul within me” is an expression of the Trinity. Going slower and in more detail, it is read as You, God, return “my soul” to “me”, meaning within my 'body'. The body referred to here is not really mine, but was provided to me by G-d.
Who is the “I”, that possesses a soul that needs to be “returned” to a body?
What we seem to have is the expression of the Divine (King) who returns a soul to a body. Here is Spirit, Soul and Body, and an additional 4th element, the “me” in the “my soul”. For the “I” that is referred to here is not “You, God”, neither am I the soul, nor the body. Although I am all of that too.
Is there a 4th element here? For the question that turns here, is who am 'I' that is having this morning experience? Who is the one praying? It is not 'You, G-d', it is not my body, though it does the praying. The only conclusion that I come to here, is the I am the soul that is the impetus here.
This is my response
"I am of the angels, descended from the realm of the Elohim."
The “You” are the angels, from the realm of Elohim. The soul that is returned is of the angelic realm, know as the Ruach — the I that “I am”, the “identification” of the soul as the beginning of the mystery. My journey is from the bondage of the manifested soul, Nefesh, contained in and by my physical being, to the alpha of me. The one who stands at the gate. Often referred to as the "upper soul", it refers to the one that is connected to the Infinite Oneness, Neshamah — the first emergence from the luminous oneness that is the source of creation — which is experienced through the portal of the mystery of Ruach.
B”shem.
I am the ray of supernal light,
the light that casts no shadow
entering the space of Constraint (tzimtzum).
I am the expression of the God-head
in the body of Creation.
I am the awakening. I am Me,
God, experiencing Myself.
I am nothing, knowing Myself.
I am everything, knowing Nothing.
I am that other that also Knows me.
I am perverse, needing what is
not God to experience God.
I am covered, with a skin
so thick, so embalmed in the
density of my incarnation
the white noise of my present presence,
that I forget
that I am God.
I have become an-other,
“separate”,
a self — the
"I" am
with a name,
believing, nay
knowing, that it has been
separated from the Mother
who nurtures
me from before my conception
that I can experience the very God
that I am… will be…
and always was.