Q&A: Who Has Not Made Me a Slave
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Who Has Not Made Me a Slave
Question
I don’t see any slaves around me.
Is it still appropriate to recite this blessing with God’s name and kingship over a situation that doesn’t exist today?
Or can one now forgo this blessing?
Answer
Why not? If the whole world has already been saved from that condition (more or less), that is even more reason to give thanks for it. I can still give thanks that I was not created in a world in which I could have been a slave, or in which I was a slave. Most Jews in the past as well were not slaves when they recited this blessing, and they too were born into a situation in which they were not expected to be slaves. If they recited it, I don’t see any reason why we should not.
There is such a concept as modern slavery. (Like high-tech, for example.)