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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>From: R' Akiva Miller<BR><BR>>>The bracha must refer to an Eved
Kenaani. The proof is in the text of the bracha itself -- "He did not make me a
slave" -- which refers to the status I had when I was made.<BR><BR>NO ONE comes
into this world as an Eved Ivri. A Jew can be born free, and then get sold into
being an Eved Ivri, but he is never a slave from the
beginning.<<</FONT></DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent"
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>>>>>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>Does "made me" necessarily mean "from birth"? If a person becomes
blind or ill or poor or whatever, some time after his birth, does he not say,
"Hashem made me this way"? Anyway it is possible for a Jew to actually be
born into a condition of slavery -- like the babies born in Egypt.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV>A related question. Does a ger make a bracha, "shelo asani
goy"? According to you, if he was born a goy, he shouldn't say this
bracha. It seems to me that since Hashem made him a Jew, via the
proper procedure, he can now say the bracha "shelo asani goy." But I don't
know the actual psak here, I never before thought to ask.</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><BR><B>--Toby
Katz<BR>=============<BR></B><BR></FONT></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">The year's hottest artists on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards. <A title="http://music.aol.com/grammys?NCID=aolcmp00300000002565" href="http://music.aol.com/grammys?NCID=aolcmp00300000002565" target="_blank">AOL Music takes you there.</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>