Endearment and Obligations
Blessed are You, G-d, L-rd, King of the Universe, who
has not made me a non-Jew. (Liturgy, Morning Blessings)
Eighteen morning blessings are said each day upon arising, after one has dressed and washed hands. The basic meaning of this particular blessing is clear: "Thank
you for not making me a member of any other nation or faith." This gratitude and
pride in being Jewish does not imply condescension toward other peoples. Rather,
it derives from the enormous responsibility that we have been entrusted with. A
non-Jew has seven divine commandments, while a Jewish male has 613. Since we
have more avenues by which to fulfill G-d's will, our potential to be connected
with Him is greater.  | | " A firstborn is proud in his extra responsibilities regardless of the extra work involved..." | | |
It is not always easy to live up to this
responsibility, yet the Jewish people take pride in it. G-d calls the Jewish
people "My child, My first-born, Israel" (Ex.4:22). A firstborn is proud in his
extra responsibilities regardless of the extra work involved, because they
signify his parents' greater trust in him. In this blessing we express gratitude
for not having been created with only seven Noahide commandments to fulfill.
In the Torah, the word "goy" does not have a
negative connotation. We even find it used in a superlative sense: "Who is like
Your people Israel goy echad ("one nation") in the land" (Chronicles
17:21). The Jews are a "unique nation," a "nation of the One" (two possible
derivative translations of goy echad) who have elevated their lower
attributes. At his high level they can unify G-d's unique name and draw it down
"into the land", thereby fulfilling their purpose of spreading divine
consciousness.
While keeping in mind this positive sense of "goy,"
in this blessing we stress our gratitude for not having been created a member of
those nations that are not involved in this service of unification, but instead
separate themselves from G-d by asserting their independence of Him. | | " The prayers of non-Jews go only to the external sources of the divine energy... " | | |
The Ramak (Rabbi Moshe Cordevero - the
predecessor to the holy Arizal as the main teacher of Kabbalah in 16th century
Safed) wrote that the prayers of non-Jews are not nearly as effective as those
of a Jew, for the prayers of non-Jews go only to the external sources of the
divine energy. Therefore, in preparation for prayer, we thank G-d daily
for not making us a non-Jew, so that our prayers retain the potential to ascend
to the highest possible place.
He further stated that, because of misdeeds, an alien
soul of a non-Jew can attach itself to a person and tempt him to stray from the
right path. Indeed, we sometimes see a person's behavior unexpectedly change in
a manner unusual for him. One possible reason is the foreign soul that has
temporarily attached itself to him. Therefore, we thank the Creator each day
for not having let us be changed into something different than what we were the
night before, even temporarily.
The Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, 1534-1572)
approached the question from a different perspective. He taught that there is a
non-Jewish aspect within each one of us - an intermediate level of impurity that
contains within it the potential to be transformed by us into something
positive. The first fourteen blessings focus on removing us from
the inevitable, absolute impurity that attaches itself to us when we sleep, for
"sleep is one-sixtieth of death", the ultimate impurity. Now we are ready to try
to remove ourselves from the intermediate, more subtle level of impurity also,
in preparation for the morning prayers, which can be a vehicle for ascending to
great spiritual heights.
For this reason, in Chassidic and Sephardic prayer
books, which are based on the arrangement of the prayers set out by the Arizal,
this blessing (and the two that follow it) come after all the others. In the
Ashkenazi siddur, they come before, since the simple level of
their content relates to the essence of the person, while the other blessings
focus on particular aspects.
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