What is a Goy?

Let's start off with the literal meaning of the word "goy," which means "nation." Let us also start off with the very heart of the matter; how has this word been used and how is it being used? To understand this, we'll have to understand, even if just generally, the context of the place and time when the word was being used to understand what it intended. In certain times, the word was absolutely derogatory, other times it was neutral, a word used to describe the nations of the world, and yet in other times hope, respect, and faith was placed in the nations, that the goyim would one day live up to their full potential of being G-dly people. We can't forget that the Torah refers to Israel (the Jews) as a "goy kadosh," a "holy nation." The famous verse from Isaiah, in Hebrew, states, "Lo yisa goy el goy kherev ve lo il'medu 'od milkhama," which means, "Nation will not lift sword against another nation and no longer will they learn war."

In times that were bad for Jews, "goy" was a derogatory term used to denigrate the people directly responsible and generally associated with these overwhelming hardships, such as in the time of the destruction of the Second Temple, and perhaps the first - a matter that I am only somewhat educated in.


Goys will be Goys

Judaism is firmly placed in the belief that one day the entire world's population will come to a knowledge of G-d, proclaiming Him publically and unashamedly, and the goyim will be instrumental in this, as they have a positive and highly respectful role to play (by keeping the Seven Laws of Noah) in the "Divine symphony" that will lead up to the coming of the (real) Messiah, i.e., not Jesus.


The Goyishe Usage of "Goy"

How do Gentiles use the word "goy?" There are many Gentiles in the world, and among them there are goyim that love Jews, those that are (supposedly) neutral, those that hate Jews, and many shades of gray in between. The Jew-loving brand are offended by the usage of the word, although many of them find it more convenient to come to hasty and abrasive (and equally, if more, offensive) conclusions about it (and therefore Jews); I am specifically referring to some religious Christians here. There are others, the Jew-hating brand of Gentiles, that use the word "Protocol of the Elders of Zion"istically, in order to prove that Jews see themselves as a superior race that is plotting to Orwellianly take over the inferior "goy" populations of the world. Then you have religious Muslims that scream and shout and, through mindless Islamic hysteria (which is really guilty of what they preach), try to pinpoint some secret racist Jewish hateful agenda inherent to the Talmud as the underlying and unpublicized cause of the "Israeli annihilation of the Palestinian people." The word "goy" will continue to be defined as wished in order to create the most convenient picture, but "goy" just means nation, and we are all goyim.