Is the story of yetziat Mitzrayim really about an exodus from slavery to freedom? In the third paragraph of the Shema, we find the mitzvah of tzizit in conjunction with remembering the Exodus from Egypt:

Speak unto the Children of Israel, and bid them that they make for themselves fringes throughout their generations in the corners of their garments, and that they put with the fringe of each corner a thread of blue. And it shall be for you a fringe, that you may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that you not go after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to go astray; that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy unto your God. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God.

Bemidbar 15:38-41

(Translation from mechon mamre.org)

דַּבֵּר אֶל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם, וְעָשׂוּ לָהֶם צִיצִת עַל-כַּנְפֵי בִגְדֵיהֶם, לְדֹרֹתָם; וְנָתְנוּ עַל-צִיצִת הַכָּנָף, פְּתִיל תְּכֵלֶת. וְהָיָה לָכֶם, לְצִיצִת, וּרְאִיתֶם אֹתוֹ וּזְכַרְתֶּם אֶת-כָּל-מִצְו‍ֹת ה’, וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֹתָם; וְלֹא-תָתוּרוּ אַחֲרֵי לְבַבְכֶם, וְאַחֲרֵי עֵינֵיכֶם, אֲשֶׁר-אַתֶּם זֹנִים, אַחֲרֵיהֶם לְמַעַן תִּזְכְּרוּ, וַעֲשִׂיתֶם אֶת-כָּל-מִצְו‍ֹתָי; וִהְיִיתֶם קְדֹשִׁים, לֵאלֹהֵיכֶם אֲנִי ה’ אֱלֹקיכֶם, אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתִי אֶתְכֶם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם, לִהְיוֹת לָכֶם, לֵאלֹקים: אֲנִי ה’ אֱלֹקיכֶם

במדבר טו:לח-מא

The beraita in BT Menachot 43b, famously reads verses 39-40 as a sequence of cause and effect: “‘…that you may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord…’ Seeing leads to remembrance, and remembrance leads to performance (of mitzvot).” Yetziat Mitzrayim is the source of our obligation to perform the mitzvot—Hashem took us out of Egypt in order to be our God, and thus we are commanded to keep the mitzvot. The tzizit remind us that we were taken out of Egypt not to be free, but for the purpose of serving God. The Gemara in Menachot 43a, in fact, compares the tzizit to a chotam, a symbol of servitude worn by slaves.

Our slavery to God, however, signifies a broader freedom. On the pasuk “For unto Me the children of Israel are servants; they are My servants” (Vaykira 21:55), the Gemara famously comments, “They are My servants—and not servants to servants” (Baba Metzia 10a). In declaring ourselves to be subservient to God, we declared our freedom from anything and to anyone else. The Torah does not want us to be enslaved but to God.

In Hasidic thought, Mitzrayim symbolizes a meitzar, a narrow, limited perspective, and the Exodus from it, the transition, symbolizes a merchav, a broader mindset. The mitzvah to remember the Exodus from Egypt, taken from this psychological perspective, translates into a demand that we cultivate a mentality of freedom. The Gemara in Masechet Kiddushin explains that this is the message communicated by the juxtaposition of Matan Torah and the laws of eved ivri in the Torah. In explaining why the eved nirtza is marked specifically in his ear and specifically by the doorpost, the Gemara picks up on the juxtaposition of the climactic moments at Har Sinai and the eved nirtza, and expresses the surprise it engenders:

The ear which heard My voice on Mount Sinai saying “For unto Me the children of Israel are servants; they are My servants,” and not servants of servants—and this individual went and acquired for himself a master?! He will have his ear pierced.

Kiddushin 22b

אזן ששמעה קולי על הר סיני בשעה שאמרתי כי לי בני ישראל עבדים ולא עבדים לעבדים והלך זה וקנה אדון לעצמו ירצע.

קדושין כב:

The Gemara wonders, how could a person who experienced yetziat Mitzrayim, and heard God say that Bnei Yisrael are not to be slaves, possibly say, “I don’t want to go out from servitude”? Rav Shimshon Refael Hirsch (Shemot 21:6, s.v. Va’avado) explains that the narrow, skewed perspective of the eved ivri causes him to think that the security of life in his master’s house is better than the uncertainty of living life as a free man. Rav Hirsch explains that when God commanded Bnei Yisrael to place blood on the mezuzot before the plague of the firstborn sons, He was marking Bnei Yisrael as free people, and giving them the responsibility to build homes that would reflect their new God-given freedom. The master therefore pierces his slave’s ear against the mezuzah, the same doorpost that God passed over. The doorposts are reminders that when God took us out of Egypt he declared that we would be His slave, and a slave to no other. A slave who chooses servitude over freedom is marked specifically in his ear, which heard but forgot God’s message of freedom at Har Sinai.

The Gemara teaches us that while the mezuzah “testifies” to God’s taking us out of Egypt, it also testifies to our essential freedom as individuals. “They are My servants”—our status as God’s chosen nation is a calling to embrace freedom from all other servitude. Perhaps the eved ivri fears his freedom after having become habituated to his master’s house. He may think that he is actually incapable of making the transition from life in his master`s home to maintaining a home of his own. Seeing the mezuzah, the eved ivri recalls the transition from slavery to freedom that we made as a nation. He then remembers that he too has made the leap from a familiar reality of servitude to an unknown reality of independence, and that he can do it again.

At times in our lives we take on the mentality of the eved ivri. We get stuck in old patterns of behavior or thought and we think change is improbable, or impossible. We get comfortable in the way we are and we fear change, becoming like the eved ivri who sees his servitude as ideal. So the Torah gives us reminders that even though the transition might be risky and frightening, we have been through it in the past, and we can do it again. Seeing the mezuzah, we remember that we have experienced the exodus from slavery to freedom. Tzizit reminds us that we are servants to God, to the exclusion of everything else. The mitzvah to remember yetziat Mitzrayim, on this level, is thus an exhortation to live an intentional life. We must remember that we all have the ability to shape our own perspective. Every moment we remember that, we are not slaves to our actions, but retain the freedom to choose how we think, feel, and act. With this awareness we have the ability to achieve an exodus in our everyday lives, from living in service of our old narratives and habits, to the freedom of choosing to serve God alone. On Pesach, the time of our liberation, may we all take the opportunity to recognize our ability to make the journey from slavery to freedom.