Morning Blessings-Pesach-Not A Slave

A pious Jew in the Kovno ghetto, compelled to do forced labor by the Nazis, asked Rabbi Oshry, the Rabbi of Kovno, how he could recite the daily blessing, “Blessed are You, Who has not made me a slave,” since he was a slave. Must he not be honest when speaking to God?

Rabbi Oshry reassured him. It was the Nazis who were the real slaves, abandoned as they were to their fearful wickedness. But a person who can freely rise in the midst of such torture to pursue the ideals of integrity when speaking to God, is no slave, but a truly free person.