Illusions

"Let us outsmart them lest they rise up from the land."
Slavery is our inability to rise up above our physical nature. It is being compelled by our desires, being confined to the natural laws of cause and effect. In slavery we are unable to perceive transcendence, unable to see G-dliness within ourselves and within our physical universe. We may believe in theory that everything is constantly being run and controlled by G-d, but for some reason we are unable to truly live our lives in line with that belief. We delude ourselves into thinking that we are demonstrating our freedom by doing what we want in giving in to our physical desires, but in truth we are enslaving ourselves to our natural tendencies. This is the slavery of Mitzrayim (Egypt), which comes from the word meitzar (narrow confinement).
When Hashem tells Moshe to take us out of slavery, Moshe asks, "When they will ask me 'what is His name', what should I say?" Hashem replies: "Tell the children of Israel 'Y-H-V-H sent me.'"
The name Y-H-V-H is the ineffable name of G-d, which (in brief) represents the spiritual DNA of all of creation. The last letter - hey - represents the physical world that we can perceive, and each letter above that represents a higher and higher level of abstraction, reaching ultimately to the Infinite Light of the Holy One where nothing else exists. Each one of us is a microcosm of the universe and has all of these levels within us. This is the secret that Moshe was given in order to free us from our slavery. When we realize that we are made in the image of G-d and that all transcendence is within us, we will be able to free ourselves from the confinement of mitzrayim. We will no longer be stuck in the earthiness of being controlled by the physical laws of nature, and we will no longer be pulled along by our lustful desires. Rather, we will begin to truly emulate Hashem (by being able to do anything) and live in the sublime ecstasy of dveikut (attachment) to Him.
"But they wont believe me," Moshe said to Hashem.
"What's that in your hand?"
"A stick…"
"Throw it on the ground".
Moshe threw it on the ground and it became a snake. This is the snake from the Garden of Eden, the root and cause of all evil, the Evil One himself. It is the one who persuades us to go after our lustful desires, the one who is responsible for the hiddeness of G-d's light. The one who causes us to doubt. The one who tells us to go after the goal and not to enjoy the process.
"Reach out and grasp its tail."
He reached out and grasped its tail and it was a stick in his hand.
"This is so they will believe that Y-H-V-H appeared to you."
When the ineffable name of Hashem was revealed to Moshe, hard reality no longer existed for him. His walking stick, which helped him along every step of the way and was extremely familiar to him, turned out to be something completely alien. In this way he realized that it is within his power to become so entirely in control of evil that it can be his "walking stick".
"Take this stick in your hand; with it you will perform miracles"
With this realization, Moshe is out of mitzrayim; now he can show the people that its all an illusion, and thereby free them from their bondage. He showed this to the Children of Israel and "the people believed".
The first answer Moshe received when he asked what he should tell the people is the name of G-d was "I will be that I will be". This is the name of perpetual existence. This is a message to us 2500 years later. This name tells us that the same way that Hashem was accessible back then is the exact same way He his accessible right now. It all depends on the extent of our will. Hashem is the creator of time and is therefore above time, which means that the Torah is not a history book. We are not merely relating stories that happened in the past. We are accessing the tools that can give us an awareness of the infinite potential within every moment. The Torah is teaching us how to live the reality where the process and the goals merge, where anxiety about the future and regret over the past cease to exist. When we have this awareness we cease to perceive Judaism as a religion of stories occurring in the past with a message for the future; rather we experience this "past" and this "future" right now, in the present within ourselves. This is redemption.
"In every generation one is obligated to regard himself as if he personally left mitzrayim." - (Pesach Haggadah)
"Remember the day of your leaving the land of mitzrayim all the days of your life." - (Devarim 16:3)
Good Shabbos!