We do not know how the Jews in Egypt rationalized their servitude, but we do not have to search far in order to find Jews today who have acted and continue to act the very same way.
These Jews idealize servitude, exile, and life among the nations.
The ideal of the Jew, to their mind, is to continue being what he is: a servant to the nations and to their values.
The Jew’s aspiration is to do the nations’ bidding.
Even the blows and the suffering inflicted upon us by the nations cease to be something that should be complained about.
For some Jews, these, too, have become part of the Jewish People’s “mission” – to be exiles and sufferers, carrying the burden of other people’s lives and work.
When the slave cannot free himself from his servitude because it has ceased to be a disgrace, a burden, or a source of pain for him, when he claims that it suits him and that he should remain in this state forever, he thereby changes from a temporary slave into an eternal slave.
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz