Rabbi Yaakov Galinsky zt”l (in his book VeHigadta) describes going to visit Rabbi Eliezer Shach, zt”l, Israel’s foremost Rosh Yeshiva [Dean of a Rabbinic seminary] at that time, while President Carter was in Israel for a state visit in 1979. He came in, and the Rosh Yeshiva asked him, “tell me, did you say the morning blessings today?”
With amazement he answered, “what’s the question?” Of course he said his blessings!
The Rav asked, “did you say the blessing ‘who has not made me a non-Jew?’” And of course Rabbi Galinsky was still more surprised at the question.
So then Rav Shach asked: “Whom were you thinking about?” Whom? All the peoples of the world, Russians, Polish…
And then Rav Shach made his point: “I was thinking about Carter. It means little to say that I am not a Russian musician or Chinese merchant. But here you have the very earth trembling before the most powerful president in the entire world, a man who puts fear in the hearts of Kings, who has such strength in his hands… And I don’t want to change places with him!”
That is what the blessing means. It is not a put-down, because there is nothing bad about not being Jewish—rather, the blessing is saying that the privilege of being Jewish is so great that it outweighs even that of being a king or president!
If so, asked Rabbi Galinsky, “why do we make this blessing using negative language, ‘who did not make me a non-Jew?’ Why do we not make a positive blessing, ‘who made me an Israelite?’ After all, we do not praise G-d [in another of the morning blessings] by saying ‘who did not make me blind,’” but rather in a positive way, “who opens the eyes of the blind.”
The Rav answered, “To say ‘who did not make me a non-Jew,’ this is an expression of praise and thanks to our Creator. But to truly be an Israelite, to be a Jew, that is something that takes toil and effort. Every Mitzvah that we do makes us more of a Jew. Every page of Talmud makes us more of a Jew. Like the Talmud says [regarding Lev. 20:8]: ‘and you shall guard my edicts and you shall do them’—do not read it as ‘them’ but rather ‘you’, [in Hebrew, ‘do’ and ‘make’ are the same word] so it is as if you are making yourself! [It gives ‘you do you’ an entirely new meaning.]
Rabbi Galinsky concluded, “who did not make me a non-Jew,” that is a praise to G-d, as G-d says “and you shall be for Me a special treasure among all the nations of the world” [Ex. 19:5]. But “you,” what is upon us to do, is “you will be for Me a nation of priests and a Holy Nation” [19:6], to serve Hashem and do His will. To be a Jew, to elevate and achieve holiness, that is our obligation. And that takes sincere effort and toil; it is not something that happens by itself!
