Let us return to the words of the Gra"ch Halevi, who stated that there were two aspects to the exile in Egypt: the actual servitude involving hard labor and the legal status of slavery, where their bodies were owned by Pharaoh. Based on this idea, we can explain the statement in the Haggadah of Pesach: "Had the Holy One, Blessed be He, not taken our forefathers out of Egypt, then we, our children, and our children's children would still be enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt." Many have wondered, how can we be certain of this? How do we know that if Hashem had not taken our forefathers out of Egypt, we and our descendants would have been enslaved to them forever? Who can guarantee that had we not left during that generation, the situation would have remained unchanged for thousands of years? Is it not possible that one day another nation would have arisen, fought Egypt, defeated them, and freed the oppressed slaves in their land? Were Egypt and Pharaoh greater than all the mighty empires and powerful kings who ruled the world, and yet their time came, and their sun set?

In Beit HaLevi (Shu"T, Part II, Drushim, Drush II), he explains the reason for the early redemption from Egypt — after 210 years of exile, rather than the 400 years promised to Avraham Avinu in the Covenant of the Parts — was because had the Israelites remained there any longer, they would have sunk into the impurity of Egypt and would no longer have been worthy of redemption. This is the language of Beit HaLevi: "And many preachers have explained in their writings this opinion that the redemption was within the time, and gave a reason for their words based on Kabbalah. The explanation is that the Egyptians, by enslaving the Israelites, caused them to sin under duress until they too were immersed in the sins and impurity of Egypt, so that if they stayed any longer in Egypt, they would have become so entrenched in their impurity that no trace of holiness inherited from their forefathers Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov would have remained in their hearts. They would have been rooted in their impurity like all the nations on the face of the earth and would no longer be related to our forefathers. Consequently, the promise made to Avraham Avinu, 'that your descendants will be strangers, etc. and afterward they will come out' (Genesis 15:13), would not have applied. The main intention of the promise was to redeem the descendants of Avraham Avinu, not those who are not called the descendants of Avraham. Just as the children of Esav and Yishmael are not called the descendants of Avraham, so too, God forbid, would it have been with Israel. Therefore, He hastened to redeem them while there was still some trace of holiness inherited from their forefathers in the inner heart, and they were still considered the descendants of Avraham, His beloved, and thus the promise could be fulfilled."

Beit HaLevi adds: "And although I have not seen these things written in a book, I explain it this way from what I have seen in authors who brought the words of the holy Arizal, who wrote that if they had stayed any longer in Egypt, they would have entered the fiftieth gate of impurity and would never have been redeemed, etc. The main purpose of the redemption from Egypt was to prevent them from being entrenched in the impurity of Egypt, etc." According to this, we can say that the intention of the author of the Haggadah is similar, that had the Holy One, Blessed be He, not taken our forefathers out of Egypt, then we, our children, and our children's children would have been enslaved to the impurity of Pharaoh and Egypt, and we would never have been able to escape and purify ourselves from it, God forbid.

Indeed, according to the words of Gra"ch Halevi, it can be explained in another way, closer to the plain meaning, that regarding the legal status of slavery, they said that had Hashem not taken our forefathers out of Egypt and nullified the legal status of slavery, then we, our children, and our children's children would still be enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt, legally enslaved, even if we were not actually performing hard labor. Our bodies would still be enslaved and owned by Pharaoh and his heirs as slaves forever. Even if Egypt, its people, and its kings had sunk and disappeared into the depths of history, like all the mighty kingdoms that left dust in their wake, the legal status of slavery would not have been nullified as long as one of Pharaoh's heirs existed at the ends of the earth. I have also seen that this is brought in the name of the Gaon Rabbi Meshulam David HaLevi Soloveitchik (Shlit"a) [Ztz"l].