For approximately the last 400 years, Jewish people have been waking up in
the morning with the following words on their lips:
מודה אני לפניך מלך חי וקיים שהחזרת בי נשמתי בחמלה רבה
אמונתך.
I am grateful to you, O living and ever-existing king,
that you have compassionately restored to me my soul; great is your
faithfulness.
This
serves as a daily reminder that God is real, a living and sentient being of
sorts. In an age of disbelief, such constant reiterations of the theme are in
order.
On a more philosophical note, this remark
here, looking ever so simple and innocent could be a rejection of that hero of
Middle Age philosophical thought, Aristotle. Here is an excerpt from Edward
Grant's (b. 1926) article in the Encyclopedia of Science and Religion about
Aristotle (384-322BCE):
Aristotle's
views about religion and divinity play a role in his overall conception of the
cosmos and its workings. In Book Eight of his Physics, he describes what
he calls the "Unmoved Mover" or "Prime Mover," which is the
ultimate source, or cause, of motion in the universe, but is itself unmoved.
For Aristotle this is God, who dwells at the circumference of the universe and
causes motion by being loved. The closer to the Unmoved Mover a body is, the
more quickly it moves. Although the Unmoved Mover is God, it did not create the
world, which Aristotle regarded as uncreated and eternal. As the prime mover,
God enjoys the best kind of life, being completely unaware of anything external
to itself and, being the most worthy object of thought, thinks only of itself.
Aristotle's God
was clearly not a divinity to be worshipped. Apart from serving as the ultimate
source of motion, God, ignorant of the world's existence, could play no
meaningful role in Aristotle's natural philosophy. Nevertheless, Aristotle
seems to have had a strong sense of the divine, which manifested itself in a
sense of wonderment and reverence for the universe.
Aristotle's
sense of God was unacceptable to Christians, Muslims, and Jews. Although
Plato's concept of a God who created from pre-existent matter was also
unacceptable, it was far more palatable to monotheists than was Aristotle's
Unmoved Mover, who did not create the world. Indeed, it could not have created
the world because, argued Aristotle, the world is eternal, without beginning or
end. Aristotle insisted that the material world could not have come into being
from another material entity, say B. For if it did, one would have to
ask from whence did B come? Such an argument would lead to the absurdity
of an infinite regression, prompting Aristotle to argue that the world has
always existed, an interpretation that posed further problems for Muslims and
Christians {and Jews – Abe}. Consistent with his assumption of an eternal
world, Aristotle regarded creation from nothing as impossible.[1]
Not all Jewish philosophers of the Middle
Ages were enthralled with Aristotle. Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi (1075-1141) is one
such Jewish thinker. Rav Yitzchak Julius Guttmann (1880-1950) summarizes some
of HaLevi's thinking in the following manner:
Historical facts…disprove a conception of a naturalistic
God that recognizes the Deity as nothing more than the "Prime Mover,"
and prove… the existence of a living God who manifests His will in the world.[2]
It would seem that whoever wrote the words
to the short and simple acknowledgement which is the Modeh Ani (which
appeared for the first time in print in the volume, Seder HaYom, 1599)
may have wished that we start our day with a simple yet profound philosophical
statement, capable of being understood by even the youngest child. What is the
philosophy being expressed here?
To understand further, we must ask and
answer the question, why is God referred to as a king here as opposed to Master of the World, Lord, or some other
appellation? Rav Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg (1785-1865; cited in Iyyun Tefillah)
explains that the word, king – in Hebrew, מלך, melekh
– is related to the Hebrew word for lead – מוליך, moleekh.
God by this word is being referred to as a leader, and more precisely as the
one who actively leads the world.
"Master of the World," "Lord," and other appellations do
not communicate His active role in the management of the world to the same
degree as does "king," and for this reason, this word was selected.
Once we grasp this concept of God, we can address the first sign which we encounter in the course of our day which is indicative
of God's involvement in the world – his restoration of our soul to us to live
yet another day.
This then is the philosophy with
which we start our morning. We believe that God is not only the prime mover,
the one who started all things and put the world into motion, but the one who
continually is involved with the events that transpire here; He is a מלך חי
וקיים.
[2] Cited in Ben-Sasson, Y. Hagut Yehudit
BeMivchan HaDorot: Cheiker veIyyun. Jerusalem: Misrad HaChinukh, 1994, p.
28.
