On the Morning Brakhot

Excerpts from Rav Dov Fischer:

«Therefore, one initially is struck by the past tense structure of three morning brakhot:
 
1.  Who did not make me a non-Jew
2.  Who did not make me a slave
3.  Who did not make me a woman
 
Past tense.  Why are these brakhot not composed in the present tense as are the other Birkhot haShachar (Morning Blessings)?  Indeed, who composed them?
 
 
The Source of the Three "Who Did Not Make Me . . ." Brakhot. 

The Talmud in Menachot 43a discusses the mitzvah of wearing tzitzit.  In that discussion, R. Shimon states that women are exempt from the mitzvah because it is a positive commandment that is time-related.  He holds that tzitzit applies only during the day, not at night, because the Torah commands regarding the mitzvah that "you shall see it." (Bamidbar 15:39). ........
 
Against the backdrop of this discussion, the Talmud proceeds to observe that that G-d loves the Jews because He surrounded us with mitzvot: tefillin on head and arm, tzitzit fringes on the garment, and a mezuzah on each applicable doorpost.  After quoting King David the Psalmist's thanks for these mitzvot, the Talmud adds that, even when David entered a bathhouse – under halakha, mezuzot are not affixed to bathhouse doorposts – and thereupon undressed in the bathhouse, leaving him briefly without any of those mitzvot, he still contemplated his circumcision: there remained on his very person a unique mitzvah to remind him of the covenant with G-d.


... The Divrei Chamudot ad loc. proceeds to explain that variant manuscripts that couch the brakhah in the affirmative stem from publishing/printing errors, and he notes an aged manuscript that preserves the negative formulation: "Who did not make me a woman."

 

For the complete Article:
http://www.rabbidov.com/Jewish%20Laws%20and%20ethics/morningblessings.htm


Best Regards,
RRW