כאילו הוא עצמו יצא ממצרים

We were commanded in the Mitzvah of seeing ourselves כאילו הוא עצמו יצא ממצרים. This does not seem like a simple mitzvah. How can we see ourselves as if we went out of Egypt when we were not actually there?

If the purpose is for us to experience as much as possible what took place during Yetzias Mitzrayim, then we should have been commanded to think very long and thoroughly into what happened to our forefathers.  To imagine how they suffered and how evil the Egyptians were until Hashem came and had mercy on his precious children and redeemed them from the bondage of slavery. This is something that we can imagine and re-live, but it is still not “ואותנו הוציא ממצרים” and us he took out of mitzrayim.

If so what is the simple explanation of this Mitzvah? How do we actually fulfill it?

The simple meaning can be explained with the following analogy. If someone books a flight from destination A to destination B, can he fly free of charge since the plane is flying regardless if he joins the flight or not? Absolutely not. Since the existence of the airline is based on the purpose for each individual passenger to pay his far. 

In a similar scenario,  If someone were to meet a wealthy friend on the way to the airport  and ask to join him on his private Jet, most likely he will not be asked by his friend to contribute towards the cost of the flight since the purpose of the flight is not the one additional passenger.  

This is the idea of Yetzias Mitzrayim.

Let us imagine Hashem knew after a hundred years Klal Yisroel would completely reject the Torah and decide to be like the rest of the nations would Yetzias Mitzrayim have still taken place? Did the generation of Yetzias Mitzrayim merit redemption in their own right? Or rather in the  zechus of all future generations so that the rest of the world merits in having Klal Yisroel around for all future generations?

If Hashem would have decided Klal Yisroel deserves to be destroyed for Chet Ha’egel would Yetzias Mitzrayim have taken place? The answer is no!

Hashem chose to redeem Klal Yisroel from Mitzrayim in the zechus of the entire Klal Yisroel, not only of that generation, it was all based on the promise that Hashem gave  Avraham Avinu that he will merit to be the progenitor of a nation. This nation is not just one generation rather it is all of the generations until Techias Hameysim.

We learn this from what Chazal’s teachings. Hashem “Chishev es Hakeytz” calculated the redemption. Even though originally the redemption was supposed to come after 400 years, meaning the generation that actually left Mitzrayim was not supposed to go out. Rather their grandchildren were supposed to be the ones redeemed; still Hashem brought the redemption after 210 years to an earlier generation.

From this we can learn that the intention of Yetzias Mitzrayim was not specifically for that generation, rather for the entire Klal Yisroel

This is the explanation in the Mitzvah of “ואותנו הוציא משם”, the bus of Geulah drove in the merit of all of us and was meant for all of us. Therefore each and every one of us is part of the goal.

During redemption of Purim we were saved from Haman’s Decree. However there is not mentioned that the purpose was for all generations. Here during Yetzias Mitzrayim we became Hashems nation, and to be a nation means for all consecutive generations as well.