[Avodah] Baruch Shelo Asani Eved

[Simon Montagu]

On Feb 13, 2008 2:08 PM, Michael Makovi <mikewinddale at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Feb 13, 2008 2:24 AM,  <T613K at aol.com> wrote:
> > > I will ask a related question.
> > > If a Jew happens to find himself in a condition of slavery (e.g., working in
> > > a slave labor camp in Siberia under Stalin, or captured at sea and then sold
> > > in a slave market in medieval Egypt), does he still say this bracha or does
> > > he skip it?
> > >
>
> > This question was asked in the Kovno Ghetto, and Rav Ephraim Oshry's
> > psak was to say it. Shu"t Mima`amakim 3, 6
>
> So what was the logic?

It's quoted at http://www.etzion.org.il/vbm/archive/yomyom/q/q52.php.
Short version: the beracha doesn't refer to physical slavery. An
enslaved Jew is still a bar hiyuva, even if he is unable to perform
mitzvot because of ones.