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.
Many years ago (in fact, more than two decades ago), I called R' Fuerst from my desk at work as I sat down to lunch. I had a piece of (quite delicious) homemade pizza for lunch. I nearly always eat at my desk as I am working (or writing TftD...), so my lunch at work cannot in any way be considered as sitting down to a formal meal; aka קביעת סעודה. That being the case, I wasn't sure whether to wash, say ha'motzi, and bentch; or was the pizza downgraded to a m'zonos. He told if it was a snack, then it's m'zonos; if a meal the ha'motzi. Which what I have always done since then. I recently found out how/why that works. The Shulchan Aruch, 168:17 discusses פשטיד''א, which is describes as a baked dough with meat or fish or cheese. In other words: pizza. Note: while the dough doesn't not need to be baked together with the meat/fish/cheese, it is required that they dough was baked with the intention of making this concoction. ...
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