New Every Morning
“They are new every morning; great is Your faith.” A Strange Way to Wake Up Here is something worth stopping to think about for a moment. A man lies in his bed. He has had a full night’s sleep. His body has rested. His soul has come back to him pure. A brand-new day is waiting for him. And he opens his eyes with a complaint. He feels heavy and bitter, as if he has already fought a long battle. The alarm clock is the enemy. The morning is a burden. The day is “just another day.” How can this be? This is the freshest moment of his whole day. Every night he goes to bed broken and tired, and every morning he starts again. And yet, right at the moment of renewal, he sighs. This puzzle is not a psychological one. It is a Hasidic one, a question of the soul. And the answer is hidden in one verse from the Book of Lamentations. New Every Morning The verse says: “They are new every morning; great is Your faith.” “New every morning” means that every morning brings something truly new. It is not only that the sun has risen again, or that the body has rested. It is a new creation. During the night the soul is taken from us. The Talmud says, “Sleep is one sixtieth of death.” In the morning the soul is given back to the body. This is what we say in the morning prayer: “The soul You placed within me is pure.” This is not simply life carrying on. It is a return. It is a creation all over again. The Zohar, the great book of Jewish mysticism, teaches that every single night, when a person’s soul rises above, it stands in judgment. When it comes back in the morning, that is a fresh act of Hashem’s kindness. It is not the universe rolling along on its own. It is not the world’s old habit. It is Hashem’s will. So when you open your eyes in the morning, you are, in a deep sense, a new creation. Great Is Your Faith: The Heart of the Matter But the real new idea here is in the second half of the verse: “great is Your faith.” We are all used to reading this “faith” as our faith in Hashem. But the verse is saying something completely different. The faith here is Hashem’s faith in us. Every morning, when Hashem gives the soul back to the body, He does it out of trust. He looks at this Jew, with everything that happened yesterday, with all the struggles and all the falls, and He says: “I believe in you. You have work to do. Take your soul back.” This is not a poetic thought. It is a foundation. The Tanya, the classic book of Hasidic thought, explains in its section of holy letters that giving the soul back each morning is an expression of a higher faith. Hashem guides every detail, and He places a person’s strengths back into his hands anew, day after day, moment by moment. From “I Got Up” to “I Was Chosen” And here is the turning point. When a person understands this, something in the way he sees himself turns upside down. He did not just “get up” this morning. He was chosen this morning. There is a world of difference between these two feelings. “I got up” is something I did on my own. It is passive, out of habit, almost without thinking. “I was chosen” is a choice. Someone looked at you, weighed it, and decided: He is ready. He can do it. Give him another day. The Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Hasidic movement, taught that there is not a single detail in the world that Hashem does not personally guide. However surprising it may seem, even the simple act of waking up is not a natural event. It is an act of personal protection. Hashem does not leave the world to run by itself. At every moment He chooses to hold it up. If so, a morning is not “just another day.” A morning is a message. Hashem is telling you: I still need you. You have a mission. Go out and fulfill it.
Putting It into Practice
The first moment of the morning, before the coffee, before the phone, before anything, is the moment that sets the tone for your whole day. “I thank You, living and eternal King, for You have given my soul back to me with compassion.” This is not just a custom. It is not a habit. It is thanks for the trust you have just been given. Think about it for one second before you put your foot on the floor: Hashem looked at you this morning and said, “I believe in you.” Instead of getting up feeling that the world owes you something, get up knowing that you owe the world something. It is not a burden but a privilege. It is not a load but a mission. And if Hashem gave you a morning, the least you can do is give Him a smile.
Questions and answers
Q: Why do so many people wake up with a complaint when a brand-new day is waiting for them?
Rabbi Landau answers: Here is something worth stopping to think about for a moment. A man lies in his bed. He has had a full night’s sleep. His body has rested. His soul has come back to him pure. A brand-new day is waiting for him. And he opens his eyes with a complaint. He feels heavy and bitter, as if he has already fought a long battle. The alarm clock is the enemy. The morning is a burden. The day is “just another day.” How can this be? This is the freshest moment of his whole day. Every night he goes to bed broken and tired, and every morning he starts again. And yet, right at the moment of renewal, he sighs. This puzzle is not a psychological one.
Q: What does "They are new every morning" teach about waking up each day?
Rabbi Landau answers: The verse says: “They are new every morning; great is Your faith.” “New every morning” means that every morning brings something truly new. It is not only that the sun has risen again, or that the body has rested. It is a new creation. During the night the soul is taken from us. The Talmud says, “Sleep is one sixtieth of death.” In the morning the soul is given back to the body. This is what we say in the morning prayer: “The soul You placed within me is pure.” This is not simply life carrying on. It is a return. It is a creation all over again.
Q: Whose faith is meant in the words "great is Your faith"?
Rabbi Landau answers: But the real new idea here is in the second half of the verse: “great is Your faith.” We are all used to reading this “faith” as our faith in Hashem. But the verse is saying something completely different. The faith here is Hashem’s faith in us. Every morning, when Hashem gives the soul back to the body, He does it out of trust. He looks at this Jew, with everything that happened yesterday, with all the struggles and all the falls, and He says: “I believe in you. You have work to do. Take your soul back.” This is not a poetic thought. It is a foundation.
Q: What is the difference between feeling "I got up" and "I was chosen" this morning?
Rabbi Landau answers: And here is the turning point. When a person understands this, something in the way he sees himself turns upside down. He did not just “get up” this morning. He was chosen this morning. There is a world of difference between these two feelings. “I got up” is something I did on my own. It is passive, out of habit, almost without thinking. “I was chosen” is a choice. Someone looked at you, weighed it, and decided: He is ready. He can do it. Give him another day. The Baal Shem Tov, founder of the Hasidic movement, taught that there is not a single detail in the world that Hashem does not personally guide.
Q: How should I start the first moment of the morning, before coffee or the phone?
Rabbi Landau answers: The first moment of the morning, before the coffee, before the phone, before anything, is the moment that sets the tone for your whole day. “I thank You, living and eternal King, for You have given my soul back to me with compassion.” This is not just a custom. It is not a habit. It is thanks for the trust you have just been given. Think about it for one second before you put your foot on the floor: Hashem looked at you this morning and said, “I believe in you.” Instead of getting up feeling that the world owes you something, get up knowing that you owe the world something. It is not a burden but a privilege. It is not a load but a mission.