It is worth noting that in the morning, after acknowledging our physical nature, our spiritual nature, and the wisdom to utilize them together; the very next bracha is "shelo asani goy" -- "Who did not make me a non-Jew". Why not just say, "Who made me a Jew"? There are really two aspects to this bracha. First, it is important to appreciate the beautiful gift we have been given -- the gift of simply not being a goy! The mishna in avos 3:18 says: beloved is yisrael who are called children of HaShem. There is also a second, more subtle point. HaShem has not only made us "not a goy", but He has also given us the opportunity to make ourselves into "yisrael". By working to make ourselves into "yisrael" and not just being created that way, our experience of Olam HaBa will be with the richness and depth of an earned relationship and not just gift for nothing.
Two scenarios: Scenario I: A young boy awakened in the middle of the night, placed in the back of vehicle, told not to make any noise, and the vehicle speeds off down the highway. Scenario II: Young boy playing in park goes to see firetruck, turns around to see scary man in angry pursuit, poised to attack. I experienced and lived through both of those scenarios. Terrifying, no? Actually, no; and my picture was never on a milk carton. Here's the context: Scenario I: We addressed both set of our grandparents as "grandma" and "grandpa". How did we distinguish? One set lived less than a half hour's drive; those were there "close grandma and grandpa". The other set lived five hour drive away; they were the "way far away grandma and grandpa". To make the trip the most pleasant for all of us, Dad would wake up my brother and I at 4:00AM, we'd groggily -- but with excitement! -- wander out and down to the garage where we'd crawl
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