Our modern post-Civil War sensibility sees slavery as a fundamental evil.
But the Torah does not seem to share this perspective. After all, there is no word for “slavery” that is distinctive from “service” or “dependency” or merely “subordinate.” In Hebrew, the word is “eved/avodah” in all of these cases. Even Pharoah’s highest officers are called the very same word as the lowliest Hebrew slave working in the hot sun.
Besides, we know that Jews are supposed to be avadim – servants – to G-d. If servitude is wrong, then how can we aspire to serving G-d?
We accept that there is a difference between being a physical source of slave labor for a materialistic Pharoah and being a spiritual source of slave labor while aspiring to have a holy relationship with G-d! But that does not mean that servitude is, itself, wrong, does it?
Is it possible that the Torah’s point is very basic and very profound: that there is no problem with dependency per sé, because all people are dependent to some extent on others! None of us is truly self-sufficient, and the more civilized we are, the more dependencies we have to a vast network of other people – for food, energy, water, roads, and every product under the sun. Is the Torah telling us that there is nothing wrong with being an eved in principle?!
Before and after the Exodus, we remained servants. Servitude, dependency and even slavery are not the problem!
If this is correct, then the issue with being a Hebrew slave in Egypt was because of the specific conditions of servitude, not the fact of servitude itself?!
Perhaps there is a corollary to this as well: The Children of Israel did not appear to be doing much of anything in Egypt. They lived and procreated (compared in the text to sheratzim in teeming over the land!). But there was no divine service, or larger mission or broader purpose!
Surely it is terrible to have a life without a higher goal or mission?! Pharoah, by making the people build things, was at least giving the people something constructive to do, wasn’t he? Is this why the Egyptians were not punished for the initial stages of the servitude, and were only punished for the later harsh conditions, genocidally-inspired infanticide, and refusal to let the people go?!
Is the Torah telling us that servitude is only bad when there are specifically awful conditions?