[Avodah] Baruch Shelo Asani Eved

[Micha Berger]

On Feb 13, 2008 2:24 AM, RnTK <T613K at aol.com> asked:
:>> If a Jew happens to find himself in a condition of slavery ... does
:>> he still say this bracha or does he skip it?

R' Simon Montagu answered:
:> This question was asked in the Kovno Ghetto, and Rav Ephraim Oshry's
:> psak was to say it. Shu"t Mima`amakim 3, 6

On Wed, February 13, 2008 7:08 am, Michael Makovi wrote:
: So what was the logic?

Well, we already established that the berakhah thanks Hashem for
having more chiyuvim. And from there someone already answered the
original question that the berakhah must refer to an eved Kanaani, not
eved Ivri.

The person the Nazis enslaved was an eved Ivri, and thus "shelo asani
eved [Kenaani]" it still true.

Presumably, had the berakhah been written particularly for this
person, I presume a less ambiguous phrasing would have been employed
than simply "aved". But since it's a general matbei'ah, there is
insufficient motivation (and no disused variant that I know of) for
utilizing a clearer nusach.

On Tue, February 12, 2008 7:00pm, RZL hlampel at koshernet.com quoted me
and dynamically disputed my choice of citing Rashi:
:> Back a step... RZS presumes you know that Rashi explains R' Meir as
:> thanking HQBH for not being someone with fewer chiyuvim....

: If I too may hearken back to old posts, I once pointed at that the
: source for this explanation of the "shelo-assanni's" is not only
: Rashi, but the very author of the nusach ha-brachah!

I got an "oh yeah!" experience. Thanks for the reminder, and my
apologies for not being a better student the previous time around.

That round, on Fri, 20 May 2005 17:16:43 -0400, RZL wrote:
...
: The Yerushalmi on Brachos 9:2 reads:

: "Manni Rav Yehudah omare shloshah dvarim tsarich adam lomar b'chol
: yom:
: ... barcuh shello assani isha, /she'ain ha-isha metsuvah al
: hamitzvos/."

That's the same source as the berakhah, but not the author. Rav
Yehudah haNasi was at most the author's talmid, given R' Meir also
lists these berakhos.

Why is he Rav Yehudah, and not Rabbi Yehudah? Is this really Rebbe,
one generation after the berakhos were written, or Rav Yehudah [bar
Yechezqeil], the amora, student of Rav and Shemu'el, and founder of
the yeshiva in Pumpedisa (Fallujah, Iraq)? In which case it's well
after the writing of the berakhos.

But still an amora would carry more authority than even my source, Rashi.

SheTir'u baTov!
-micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "Man wants to achieve greatness overnight,
micha at aishdas.org        and he wants to sleep well that night too."
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