We say on Seder night, “Avadim Hayinu” – were slaves to Pharoah in Egypt. We add that if we hadn’t been freed, we would still be slaves to this day. R’ Yitzchak Bernstein asks if this is really true. Could all this time pass, could civilisation progress, and still leave us as slaves in Egypt?! Surely we would have at least been released along with the blacks in America? There is no way that with all these democracies across the world, that we would still be allowed to be enslaved. The question is strengthened by the fact that G-d had promised He would bring us to Israel?! The key is “L’Pharoah”. We would have still been slaves to Pharoah, as he tries to claim the exodus as his efforts and decisions. The beginning of Parshat Beshalach says – “When Pharoah sent the Jews out of Egypt”. But it wasn’t him, it was G-d! He wanted to rewrite the events, and take all the credit. That is why the whole exodus had to be done in the openly miraculous way in which it was conducted. It had to be clear that Pharoah had absolutely nothing to do with it. Otherwise he would have been able to take all the credit. If he had taken all the credit, then WE WOULD STILL BE ENSLAVED TO HIM! If G-d had not taken us out of Egypt (but rather a series of natural events) then we would still be slaves to Pharoah!