Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Great to Be Here
The Gemara in :מנחות מג famously teaches about some of the ברכות that we say every day, including - שלא עשני "גוי The reason we say the ברכה in the negative, instead of שעשני יהודי, is based on the opinion in the גמרא that טוב לאדם שלא נברא משנברא - it would have been better for man to never have been created. This was all I could think of when reading this article by (Sanhedrin favorite) Peter Singer. Interestingly enough, the Torah places having children as its very first מצוה. By the logic in the article, that seems inconsistent. If man is really better off never having been born, why does the Torah place such value on having children? I have some ideas, but what do you think?
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I believe that if we were to say שעשני יהודי, we would be praising Hashem for giving us something that makes us stumble when we say שלא עשני "גוי we are thanking Hashem for giving us the opportunity to do Mitzvot. Although the two brachot are virtually the same I think the wording makes a big difference.Singer says parents should think about not having kids because their lives will be hard. The Torah values having children because I think we are meant to take a different approach. We are not suppose to see difficulty as a foregone conclusion because only Hashem knows what will happen. Furthermore when a parent has a child that parent is bringing another Jewish soul into the world another jew who has the privilege/ ability to do mitzvot and to deserve Gan eden. I think in general we don't have such a bleak view of future and we don't have such a hopeless view for the future. Also we don't believe what the article says "that human lives are, in general, much less good than we think they are." Like with the brachaשלא עשני "גוי implies we should see life as an opportunity to do mitzvot not as something that will ultimately make us sin.
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