Modeh Ani — the morning prayer: text, translation, and one rule everyone gets to use

Twelve words, said before anything else — before getting up, before washing, before checking a phone. Modeh Ani is the one prayer designed for a moment when you are not ready to pray: the Mishnah Berurah spells out why it may be said with unwashed hands, where the pause in the middle goes, and which verse the last two words come from. Here is the text, then each rule with the words of the source.

The text — with transliteration and translation

Text from the siddur — The Metsudah siddur, 1981. The spelling of the Divine Name is that edition’s.

A woman says modah (מוֹדָה) instead of modeh — the feminine form of the same word. That is grammar, not a different prayer.

Why you say it before washing your hands

Everything else in the morning waits for netilat yadayim — washing the hands. Modeh Ani does not, and the Mishnah Berurah gives the reason in one line:

…טוב לומר תיכף בקומו: "מודה אני לפניך מלך חי וקיים שהחזרת בי נשמתי בחמלה, רבה אמונתך". ותיבת "בחמלה" יהיה באתנחתא, ו"רבה אמונתך" בלי הפסק. והוא מן הכתוב: "חדשים לבקרים" וגו', שהקב"ה מקיים אמונתו להחזיר נשמות המופקדים בבוקר. ואין צריך לזה נטילת ידיים, ואף אם ידיו מטונפות, כי אין מזכיר בזה הנוסח לא שם ולא כינוי…
It is good to say, immediately upon rising: “Modeh ani lefanecha, living and enduring King, for You have returned my soul to me with compassion — great is Your faithfulness.” … And no washing of the hands is needed for this, even if one’s hands are unclean — for this wording mentions neither the Divine Name nor any substitute for it.Mishnah Berurah 1:8

That is the whole mechanism: the prayer was worded without God’s Name precisely so it could be said in bed, in the first second of the day. The same paragraph draws the line on the other side: Torah study before washing is not permitted — and in any case not before birkat haTorah.

The pause in the middle — and the verse behind it

The Mishnah Berurah adds a reading instruction that most printed cards ignore: pause after bechemla, then say rabba emunatecha in one breath:

…ותיבת "בחמלה" יהיה באתנחתא, ו"רבה אמונתך" בלי הפסק. והוא מן הכתוב: "חדשים לבקרים" וגו', שהקב"ה מקיים אמונתו להחזיר נשמות המופקדים בבוקר…
The word “bechemla” should carry a pause (etnachta), and “rabba emunatecha” follows without interruption. It comes from the verse “they are new every morning…” — that the Holy One keeps His faithfulness, returning the souls entrusted to Him each morning.Mishnah Berurah 1:8

The verse is from Eicha (Lamentations), and it is worth seeing whole — the last three words of Modeh Ani are a direct quotation of its last three words:

חַֽסְדֵ֤י יְהֹוָה֙ כִּ֣י לֹא־תָ֔מְנוּ כִּ֥י לֹא־כָל֖וּ רַחֲמָֽיו׃ חֲדָשִׁים֙ לַבְּקָרִ֔ים רַבָּ֖ה אֱמוּנָתֶֽךָ׃
The Lord’s kindnesses are not ended, His mercies are not spent. They are new every morning — great is Your faithfulness.Eicha (Lamentations) 3:22–23

So the structure is: thank You for returning my soul with compassion — pause — great is Your faithfulness, said of the God who hands back what was deposited with Him, every single morning. The pause keeps the quotation intact.

Getting up — what the Shulchan Aruch asks

The Shulchan Aruch opens Orach Chaim with the sentence every yeshiva child knows:

…יתגבר כארי לעמוד בבוקר לעבודת בוראו שיהא הוא מעורר השחר…
One should rise strong as a lion in the morning for the service of his Creator — so that it is he who wakes the dawn.Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 1:1

The Rama adds two glosses there: at the very least, do not get up later than the hour the congregation prays; and the famous framework of shiviti — “I set the Lord before me always” — that a person alone in his room is still standing before the King. The gloss ends where this page began: “the moment he wakes from his sleep, let him rise with alacrity”.

And one practical nuance, from the Mishnah Berurah on that very word: with alacrity does not mean jumping out of bed. Citing the Gemara (Gittin 70), he writes that one should “wait a little and not stand up suddenly, for that harms the body” — say Modeh Ani, pause, then get up.

What the siddur prints next

Right after Modeh Ani, the siddur prints a verse and a line — a bridge from the first thought of the day to the morning blessings:

Text from the siddur — The Metsudah siddur, 1981. The spelling of the Divine Name is that edition’s.

From here the morning continues with netilat yadayim, Asher Yatzar and the morning blessings — each has its own page below.

Sources

• Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 1:1 — rise like a lion; Rama — the hour of prayer, and shiviti
• Mishnah Berurah 1:8 — the text of Modeh Ani; no washing needed — no Name, no kinui; the pause at bechemla; not standing up suddenly (citing Gittin 70)
• Eicha (Lamentations) 3:22–23 — chadashim labekarim — the verse behind rabba emunatecha
• Siddur Ashkenaz — Modeh Ani — the text and what the siddur prints after it