“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh parshas Behar-Bechukosai
– Chazak!
21 Iyar 5780/May 15, 2020
Avos Perek 5 – 36th day of
the Omer
NEW MODIM
So,
since the pandemic began, every morning I head down to my basement office (the
one my wife calls my man-cave) to deliver shiur to my students on Zoom. When we
first began doing so a couple of months ago, it was suggested that we use our
phones for audio. This way, if the internet connection in our homes is weak, we
can continue saying shiur even if our video is frozen. That was sage advice,
especially because I found myself often getting kicked off the internet
completely in the middle of shiur.
When Chani
called a technician to ask about what we could do to improve our internet
service, he explained that our current service was inadequate. With the added
demand in our home, which had become the base for 9 different classrooms in 7
different schools, our internet wasn’t strong enough. That coupled with the
fact that our modem was in the living room, and my office is a floor beneath
it, made the connection even more iffy. The technician compared it to a traffic
jam. Everyone is trying to go the same way, but there is limited availability.
Every device in our home was trying to grab the same limited connectivity.
The
technician said that we needed a new system, which he would send out right
away. I assumed that he was sending us a new modem.
Those
words sounded vaguely familiar: a new modem. Where did I hear that before?
After
some thought, I remembered; it was from a lecture I heard recently. The speaker
was saying that the most important component of prayer is gratitude. We think
the most important part of prayer is “please” - when we state our requests to
Hashem. But really the most important and effective prayer is when we express
our gratitude to Hashem.
Instead of telling Hashem how He needs to get things
right, we would be better off noticing how much He does for us.
He added
that we don’t spend enough time concentrating on the beracha of “Modim”, in
which we express our gratitude to Hashem.
If one
wants to make his recitation of Modim more personal and meaningful, he should
stop before reciting that beracha and think about one or two unique things that
he is particularly thankful to Hashem for at that moment. Just as no one likes
eating soggy cereal from the day before, we shouldn’t be satisfied with a
“soggy Modim”. Each day we should aim to recite a “new Modim”, that fills us
with a renewed sense of gratitude to Hashem.
That was
it! That was what I was reminded of when I heard those words. The need to be
continually grateful and to count our blessings continually - a new Modim!
The only problem is that when I told Chani about my
clever comparison between a new modem and a new Modim, she replied that we
didn’t get a new modem; we got a new router! (Don’t ask me to explain the
difference between them...)
But “new
router” doesn’t have any clever altering connotation. So now I have nothing to
write about this week. Oh well; maybe next week.
Shabbat
Shalom & Good Shabbos,
R’ Dani and Chani Staum