THIS CHAPTER discusses the opening statement of the day and finds in it the seeds of the liturgy as a whole, both in its use of language—especially the citation or echoing of scriptural texts—and in the ideas it encapsulates. These include the notion that human beings may have expectations of God that are not fulfilled, that there are correspondences between daily life and biblical narrative, and that the Torah, which human beings are supposed to understand and obey, is dangerously opaque. This is the first of several liturgical introductions to the morning, each of which contributes to a wider understanding of the range of Jewish views of human life, perception, and happiness, though this version sets the scene for the others.

EXTRACT 1. The Opening Statement of the Day

The sentence to be discussed in this chapter opens the first sequence of the morning liturgy, entitled Birkhot Hashah. ar, ‘dawn blessings’, which accompanies the speaker through waking, dressing, and leaving home for synagogue, to the point of facing the start of a new day. The range of meanings encompassed by this series of texts reaches far beyond this framework, however, to span the entire sacred narrative, integrating scriptural readings into daily life. The sequence is named after the benediction formulae (berakhot) at its core, although the first of these appears only in Extract 2 and the main grouping in Extracts 22–5. Numerous other texts have accumulated around this earlier core, the origins of which will be outlined in the course of the discussion. The sequence concludes in a preliminary way in Extract 40, but was later extended by an additional psalm, forming either an appendix or a preview of what is to come. This delays the ending until Extract 42.

The opening statement of the day (Modeh ani)

An introductory group of texts of this kind might be expected to outline a developmental process, taking the speaker from sleep to full engagement with daily life; it might perhaps relate this transition metaphorically to larger patterns of growth, such as from conception to birth or from birth to independence.