Boulder Aish Kodesh

The redemption from Egypt seems to have been a long and intricate process, prophesied in terms of its length and nature to Avraham, dreaded by Ya’akov and his sons, anticipated by Yosef, who gave the famous code words by which the redeemer would be known: ‘Hashem will surely remember you,’ and brought on by the cries of the people Israel as they suffered under the burdens of slavery.  But the Gemarra in Sotah 11b gives us a single, simple reason why the redemption happened – ‘in the merit of righteous women in that generation, Israel was redeemed from Egypt.’ 

The Gemarra goes on to specify what exactly they did to bring about the redemption:

When they would go to draw water, G-d sent small fish to them in their pitchers, and they would draw half water and half fish.  And they would come and put the pots on the stove, one of hot water, and one of fish.  And they would bring them to their husbands, who were working in the field, and they would wash their husbands, and put oil on them, and feed them, and give them to drink, and have relations with them at the boundaries of the fields. 

We have to understand why such an act would be sufficiently meritorious to catalyze the redemption.  Perhaps it is understood in context of the previous passage in the Gemarra: In explaining the verse, ‘all their work was grueling,’ R’ Shimon b. Nachmani said in the name of Rebbe Yohanan, ‘they would exchange the men’s work for women’s work, and the women’s work for men’s work.’  In this view, the reason that the work was so grueling is not that it was too physically challenging, but that it was the wrong kind of work for each person – men doing women’s work, and women doing men’s work.

It is essential to human experience to feel that one’s strengths and talents are being used.  When they are not being properly used, one will feel that an important part of one’s life force is atrophying.  Any tool that lies unused will fall into rust and disrepair; all the more so when the tool is an expression of one’s spirit.  Such disuse can lead one to deep despair.  Thus, the Egyptians (And the Nazis after them) understood that the best way to break the spirit of the Jewish people was to give them tasks that would disrupt their sense of self and their sense of meaning.