A perusal of various sources in Chazal reveal two disparate explanations for the Jewish people’s descent into Egypt.
In one source, Chazal explain (Nedarim 32a) that Hashem’s decree to Avraham Avinu that “your offspring will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and afflict them” (Bereishis 15:13) was a response to Avraham’s wondering how he could be assured his descendants would inherit Eretz Yisrael (ibid. pasuk 8).
That question indicated a certain deficiency in Avraham’s faith in Hashem (relative to his spiritual level), for Hashem had already promised the Land of Israel to his progeny. This lack of faith, according to the Gemara, was the root cause of Bnei Yisrael’s exile in Mitzrayim.
Elsewhere, though, Chazal offer a different explanation for the exile in Mitzrayim: The Gemara states (Shabbos 10b), “The weight of two sela’im of fabric that Yaakov gave to Yosef more than to his brothers [i.e., the fine tunic that Yaakov fashioned for him] led to [the descent] to Egypt.” According to this explanation, the exile in Mitzrayim resulted from the brothers’ envy of Yosef, which drove them to sell him into slavery.
From these sources, we see that two factors led to the Jewish people’s exile in Egypt: a deficiency in their emunah and a lack of harmony that created a relationship fraught with envy and disunity.
The purpose of an exile is for the Jewish people to rectify the sins that created it. Thus it is clear that Bnei Yisrael were redeemed from Egypt only when they had corrected the very deficiencies that led to the exile. To that end, they needed to cultivate unshakable faith in Hashem even in the midst of the darkness and oppression of galus, as well as to develop the willingness to aid each other and look kindly upon each other even amid the hardships of exile.
Indeed, Chazal indicate that the redemption from Egypt came about because Bnei Yisrael succeeded in repairing these two inner flaws. In one place, the Midrash states (Mechilta d’Rabi Yishmael, Beshalach, Maseches d’Vayehi, ch. 6), “You find that Bnei Yisrael were redeemed from Egypt only because of their faith, as the pasuk states (Shemos 4:31), ‘The nation had faith.’ ”
Meanwhile, Chazal state elsewhere (Vayikra Rabbah 32:5), “Bnei Yisrael were redeemed from Mitzrayim because of four things: They did not change their names or their languages, they did not speak lashon hara, and there was no one among them who was guilty of licentiousness.”
Each of these statements of Chazal reveals how the Jewish people rectified the two character flaws that caused them to be exiled. The sin of lacking faith in Hashem was alleviated when Bnei Yisrael trusted in Hashem and believed that only He could save them from Pharaoh. The rectification of the lack of harmony among them is clear from the fact that they did not change their names or languages, nor did they speak lashon hara or engage in immoral acts. These practices kept the Jewish people united as a distinct nation.
Perhaps this can offer us an insight into the Torah’s words (Shemos 2:23-25), “The king of Mitzrayim died and Bnei Yisrael sighed from the work and cried out…. God saw Bnei Yisrael, and God knew.” According to our approach, we can explain that these pesukim identify two things that Hashem “saw”: the power of the Jewish people’s faith, which led them to cry out to Hashem and trust in Him to save them, and the fact that they formed a unit called “Bnei Yisrael,” a single nation united under a single name.
Thus, the Jewish people succeeded in correcting both flaws that led to their exile in Egypt, and their cries were heard in Heaven, leading to the beginning of their redemption.
