[Avodah] Modim D'Rabbanan

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Alan Krinsky asked:
> As in many shuls, on the wall hangs a poster of the Modim
> D'Rabbanan. However, the text of the poster differs by one
> word from the text in all of the siddurim. Where the
> siddurim read "us-kay-me-nu"/"ut-kay-me-nu" the poster
> reads "us-cha-ne-nu"/"ut-cha-ne-nu."

I was stunned to read this, but on reflection I think it might explain why I've had trouble memorizing this short paragraph; I always get lost in the middle, and perhaps this is why. I thank you, and will try to use the Kuf word from now on, as in my siddur.

But I still wanted to check out these claims. I turns out that the Nusach Ashkenaz shul where I davend this morning has four Modim posters. Three of them had the Kuf word, and one had the Ches word.

(Statistics nerds, please note: One might be tempted to say that I saw a mere 25% Ches rate, but two of the three Kuf posters were clearly mere enlargements from siddurim, with no added art. The other two posters were clearly designed as pretty posters for hanging in shul, and those two posters yielded one each for the Kuf and Ches texts, a 50% rate.)

Another thing to check is RAK's claim that "all" siddurim use the Kuf word. I looked in several siddurim, both Nusach Ashkenaz and Nusach Sfard, and indeed, the Kuf appeared in all of them. HOWEVER, of the two Edot Hamizrach siddurim I own (Rinat Yisrael and Imrei Fee), BOTH use the Ches word: "ken t'chayenu ut'chanenu".

So now I think the question can be rephrased to read: Why is it that so many of the posters seen by RAK use the Edot Hamizrach text?

Here's my guess what the answer might be: People who purchase these posters are unaware of the nusach difference, and so they choose these posters with other criteria in mind. The people who design the posters may or may not be aware of the difference, but would generally use their personal nusach in any case.

This is not an unusual situation. When people shop for an Ushpizin poster for their sukkah, how many people look to see where the designer placed Yosef Hatzadik? (Nusach Ashkenaz puts him at #4, Nusach Sfard at #6.) Ditto for Hagadas, where these two nuschaos arrange Hallel differently.

Akiva Miller

The Golden Rule: He who has the gold, makes the rules.

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