הודאה לפני התרגיל | Prayer of Gratitude Before Exercise, by Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz

Contributor(s):

Shmuly Yanklowitz

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15 June 2018 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Well-being, health, and caregiving

Tags:

Gratitude, שמירת הגוף shmirat haguf, North America, all bodies, תחינות teḥinot, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., מודים Modim

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Hebrew

English

אֱלֹהַי,
אֲשֶׁר יָצַרְתָּ אֶת נִשְׁמָתִי וְאֶת גּוּפִי,
וְצִוִּיתָנִי לִשְׁמֹר אוֹתָם מְאֹד;
חׇנֵּנִי בְּעֹז לְהַמְרִיץ אֶת עַצְמִי בַּמִּדָּה הָרְאוּיָה.

My God,
You have created my soul and body,
and have commanded me to fervently watch over them;
grant me the courage to exert myself to the suitable degree.

מוֹדֶה אֲנִי לְפָנֶיךָ,
שֶׁנָּתַתָּ לִי אֶת הַכּוֹחוֹת הַנְּחוּצִים לְהִתְאַמֵּן;
כֵּן שׇׁמְרֵנִי נָא מִפְּגִיעָה בְּאִמּוּן זֶה,
שַׂמְּחֵנִי בּוֹ,
וְעֲזֹר לְמַאֲמַצַּי לְחַזֵּק אֶת גּוּפִי
וּלְהַאֲרִיךְ אֶת יָמַי בִּבְרִיאוּת.

I am grateful to You
that You have provided me with the necessary vigor to exercise;
please continue to guard me from injury during this training,
allow me to delight in it,
and assist my efforts to strengthen my body,
and to lengthen my days in health.

This prayer was first published at the Times of Israel in an essay by Rav Shmuly Yanklowitz, “Making a blessing before we exercise!” on 15 June 2018. He writes:

Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaKohen Kook teaches that exercise can be a holy mitsvah:
[W]hen young people engage in sport to strengthen the power and spirit for the sake of the might of the entire nation, that holy service raises God’s Presence higher and higher, as it is raised by the songs and praises that David, King of Israel, expressed in the book of Psalms.
By means of supernal intentions, the inner soul rises. By means of actions that strengthen individuals’ bodies for the sake of the all, outer spirituality rises. These two together bring to perfection the arrangements of all holiness, emphasizing the character of the nation in that small phrase upon which all the limbs of the Torah depend: “In all your ways, know Him” (Orot, Orot Hatechiyah 34).
So, then, if it is a mitsvah to guard our lives and strengthen our bodies in service of our holy mission, then there should be a brakhah (blessing) before we start a session of vigorous activity; any excuse to add blessings to our day is a wonderful opportunity for personal growth! With regard to the substance of the blessing, I would propose the following language.

. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike . 4.0 . International .

“הודאה לפני התרגיל | Prayer of Gratitude Before Exercise, by Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Shmuly Yanklowitz

Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz (born 1981) is an Open Orthodox rabbi and author. In March 2012 and March 2013, Newsweek/The Daily Beast listed Yanklowitz as one of the 50 most influential rabbis in America and The Forward named Yanklowitz one of the 50 most influential Jews of 2016. Yanklowitz was ordained as a rabbi at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and he received a second rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the chief rabbi of Efrat, and a third rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo of Jerusalem. He earned a master's degree at Harvard University in Leadership and Psychology, and a second master's degree in Jewish Philosophy at Yeshiva University. Yanklowitz received his doctorate in moral development from Columbia University and has taught at UCLA Law School and Barnard College. Yanklowitz founded Uri L'Tzedek, an Orthodox social justice movement, and Shamayim, a spiritual activist center for animal protection.

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17