12. Birchas HaShachar: Shelo Asani Goi Wednesday 26 Adar 1 5774/ Feb. 26 2014. Three questions: 1) Why are the next three Brachos negative (“I was not made a…”) rather positive, thank God I’m a Jew etc. 2) We are a Goi (nation), why identify gentiles by a word that so frequently denotes Jewish people also? 3) Why are these three Brachos at the end rather than at the beginning (of the Brachos), as it is in so many nuschaos? Point: Goi is good, it is an expression of God and nothing other than that. The blessing is for having our own identity in addition to serve and partner with God in the creation, which Goyim cannot do (in the same way as Jewish people can).
