Incredible Acts of Chutzpah & Kindness N°4
JUSTICE FOR THE WORD "GOY" גוי
The word goy in Biblical Hebrew originally meant "nations". In the Torah it appears more than 550 times to refer to Israelites AS WELL AS "other nations", or rather, other peoples.The question of what makes-up a "goy" may now be approched. According to rabbinical/talmudic writings, the "goyim" are constituted of a group of people numbering at least 70 and speaking a distinct dialect. (I learned this on wikipedia).
Now where is the controversy relative to this word? In English, Hebrew and well as Yiddish, the word goy has become synonym with "non-jew". Not only in order to distinguish a barrier between Yiddishkeit and goyischer customs and traditions that would lead us down a non-Jewish path, away from yidden and Yiddishkeit: but also to demean, to judge, and to show an enormement amount of free-hatred towards goyim.
If we study a little the part in shacharit where we say: shelo asani goy (Thanks to G.d who did not make me a goy), we cannot presume that this prayer instituted by the great Rabbanoim automatically means: Thank you G.d for not making me a goy because goys are necessarily "bad". For example, in the Italkite tradition(nusach Italkite) the prayer goes from "Shelo asani goy" to "shel asani-Yisrael".Be happy to be a Jew, a yid. Be proud of it, but be thankful for having recieved the Torah, which carries us! But don't rub any free-hatredin the faces of someone because they're simply different
JUSTICE FOR THE WORD "GOY" גוי
The question of what makes-up a "goy" may now be approched. According to rabbinical/talmudic writings, the "goyim" are constituted of a group of people numbering at least 70 and speaking a distinct dialect. (I learned this on wikipedia).
Now where is the controversy relative to this word? In English, Hebrew and well as Yiddish, the word goy has become synonym with "non-jew". Not only in order to distinguish a barrier between Yiddishkeit and goyischer customs and traditions that would lead us down a non-Jewish path, away from yidden and Yiddishkeit: but also to demean, to judge, and to show an enormement amount of free-hatred towards goyim.
If we study a little the part in shacharit where we say: shelo asani goy (Thanks to G.d who did not make me a goy), we cannot presume that this prayer instituted by the great Rabbanoim
automatically means: Thank you G.d for not making me a goy because goys are necessarily "bad". For example, in the Italkite tradition
(nusach Italkite) the prayer goes from "Shelo asani goy" to "shel asani-Yisrael".
Be happy to be a Jew, a yid. Be proud of it, but be thankful for having recieved the Torah, which carries us! But don't rub any free-hatred
in the faces of someone because they're simply different
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