The Berditchiver, R’ Levi Yitzchok, would say Birchas hashachar out loud each morning. He would say each brachah so that everyone could answer “Amen” to his brachos. One morning, he said all the brachos but omitted the brachah of “shelo asani goy.” This puzzled the listeners. Why is he omitting this brachah? Is he mistaken? Should we approach him to inform him about the mishap?
When they approached him to ask why he overlooked the brachah, he answered in a way that can serve as a great lesson for us. “This morning, when I rose from bed, I thought to myself about the great gift that I was fortunate to receive – the gift of being a Yid. I was so overjoyed that right then I jumped up and said the brachah of “Shelo asani goy.” So, when I started saying the morning brachos, I was forced to omit that brachah.
We are not on such a level, but by some thought we will start appreciating the infinite gift that we were granted. A minority of Yidden were treasured with this. Let’s take advantage of this award and appreciate it to the fullest. As R’ Shlomo of Karlin said: “A person should be overjoyed with happiness just by the fact that he is a Yid and not a gentile. He could’ve easily been born a gentile who doesn’t have any eternity, and their lives are filled with abomination and destruction.”
