“It came to be in those many days that the king of Egypt died, and the Children of Israel groaned because of the work and they cried out. Their outcry because of the work went up to God. God heard their moaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham and He knew.” (Exodus 2:23) 

Nesivos Shalom Commentary: The segment of the Torah dealing with leaving Egypt occupies a large part of the Torah. The whole topic of the exile in Egypt, and the beginning of the redemption followed by the complete redemption from Egypt – The Torah is not just telling us a story about what happened in the past. Rather with all these details the Torah is teaching us about ways of living. It is clear that the topic of exile of the People of Israel is not a collection of random facts. Rather the exile and redemption are integral elements of the People of Israel. As we see the long time that we have been in exile; this is because exile is a critical element of the People of Israel. This is true whether we are talking about Israel as a whole or each individual person – we are imbued with exile and darkness. Until the final redemption when a new light will shine on Zion. The chapters of going out of Egypt are a complete Torah dealing with all the issues of exile and redemption to light up for the whole of Israel the way they should go in the darkness of exile. 

This verse quoted above is the basis of the beginning of the redemption – the beginning of the arousal from below that will cause the arousal from above. God saw and God knew. During the whole 210 years until this moment, Israel did not cry out to God. Because they were in the extreme, great darkness that they were not even able to cry out. Like a man who has despaired and doesn’t even have the shadow of hope. This is the ultimate depth of the exile. As it says in the Zohar haKodesh: In Egypt, even the power of speech was in exile. This is learned from the verse “the desert has closed in upon them” (Exodus 14,3) {Editor’s note: the word ‘desert’ and the word ‘speech’ are very similar in Hebrew} Israel was unable to even speak to God, they were unable to pray and to ask. Because they were so despondent, they were unable to even ask for anything from God. That is why this crying out mentioned in the verse is so important. It is the beginning of redemption for the People of Israel in Egypt and for each one of us in our own lives.