Praised is the One who kept His promise to Israel’s ancestors, Praised is He: This statement is a kind of berachah, a blessing. Some commentaries explain that one must recite a blessing immediately before one recalls the subjugation of the Israelites. “Just as one recites a blessing upon hearing good news, so one recites a blessing upon hearing bad news” (BT Berachot). One offers comfort upon telling the story of this and other exiles, “Praised is the One who keeps His promise regarding the redemption of Israel which He promised us. Praised is the One who constantly calculates when the end time will arrive, when the time of peace and redemption will arrive. As it is written, “Then God said to Avram…your offspring shall be strangers in a land not their own (in Babylonia) and they shall serve (in Assyria) and they shall be afflicted (in Greece), and those that judged you I shall judge (in Edom).” (Genesis 15) One concludes: “And afterwards, they shall go forth with great wealth.” This verse is a promise of redemption from all the nations. One should explain the meaning of “the Holy One calculates the end.” Since the Holy One desired to bring the end (keitz) sooner, he subtracted 190 years (the gemartria of keitz) from the Covenant of the Pieces until the Israelites went forth from Egypt, which was said to be 400 years. The Israelites were only in Egypt 210 years – they skipped the extra 190 years. The literal meaning is “it was if they were subjugated all these years."