And they afflicted us. The word ‘afflict’ could be understood as affliction for some larger national purpose. For instance, Pharaoh might have enslaved the people of Israel in order to take advantage of their free labor to accomplish some national project. The proof text offers a different insight: the purpose of this hard labor was not to accomplish anything in particular but, rather, to break the spirit of the Israelites. The verse says, “He placed taskmasters over them in order to oppress them.” In other words, he placed the taskmasters over them solely for the purpose of oppression and not necessarily because he wanted to take advantage of free labor. This idea is reflected in a Midrash that claims that the Egyptians would have the Israelites construct buildings and then knock them down so that they would have to build them all over again.