Getting out of the box
We find a very unique word in describing the Jewish nation work in Egypt "מסכנות"
ויבן ערי מסכנות לפרעה
So the gemara has two explanations what the word
מסכנות means either that he gave them dangerous work that puts them in a סכנה or that he made them poor as a מסכן
since whoever gets into construction becomes poor,( as anyone who built a house with a open ended budget knows quite well you never know where you finish).
The question is if they were slaves how is possible to make them poor since they are not financially independent ?
It could be that these 2 explanations are really
trying to say the same thing .
In Egypt the דעת Was in exile.
The word דעת Means personal creativity as the gemara says
כשם שפרצופיהם שונים כך דעותיהם שונות
Even if a person is poor financially if he can feel he is being creative and bringing out his personal potential and creativity he won't be considered so poor as the gemara says אין עני אלא בדעת . Pharaoh was trying to take them poor in דעת which is everyone's personal creativity so he gave them dangerous jobs, when a person is constantly in danger his survival instincts of fight or flight are on high alert which totally shuts down the creative mind. but he did even more he made them work on a very boxy project that had zero creativity.
Like the מהר"ל in גבורות השם (chapter 15) says on this verse construction of buildings is not letting you get out of the "box" . So pharaoh made them work in a very boxy type of work with zero personal touch or creativity. (This can also be why it says the word ויבן in singular form cause it all looked like 1 person doing the same thing again and again not many )
We are no longer in Egypt but our דעת personal creativity is most of the time still in exile. We are stressed out by so many non life threatening situations that we don't let our creative mind fulfill its purpose. Let's try this pesach to start letting go of these situations that over stress us for nothing and lets start living our personal creative lives!