We slide into Avdut-servitude in just a few verses, after Joseph dies, and his brothers, and all that generation. The land became filled with us, then a new king arose over Egypt who knew not Joseph (Exodus 1:8). Is that the beginning of servitude? Now we can ask the question along with Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev: in our movement towards freedom, when does freedom begin?

Who is responsible? After servitude, how did we get free? Who is responsible for what acts of separation, of courage, resistance, who taught whom what that led to the act of release? How far back into the condition of servitude does freedom begin?

Does it begin with being pulled up by our ears out of Egypt? No, it does not begin there. It begins earlier, back beyond that.

Does it begin with a meeting with God at a bush full of fire (Ex. 3:3)? No, it begins earlier than that.

Does it begin with a single act of spontaneous defiance against Egyptian oppression (Ex. 2:11)? No, earlier than that. Can it be found in the condition of servitude itself?

Freedom is infinitely regressible. Every act in the chain of behavior which leads to freedom is built on a previous act. You may never know when it begins. Or every act contributes in some partial way to freedom.

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No deed is done, no thought is thought, no dream is dreamed, for nothing. Everything contributes in some inscrutable way to freedom.

When does freedom begin? It may begin today, with this thought. The thought was preceded by the event yesterday, which may have been preceded by the dream the day before.

Every act, every thought may be a gesture for freedom. Every act has a liberating potential of which we are unaware. No deed wasted, no thought for nothing.

When did we get free? When we stopped, when we dreamed it, when we resisted, back beyond, way beyond, before it came to be.