“Who brought you out of the land of Egypt.”
"God is not portrayed here as the Creator, because the cosmic experience is too formal and abstract. God does not wish to appear as a tyrant to whom man must submit. The vastness of the cosmos frightens man, and he cannot transport himself to the outer fringes of the universe to meet Him. The mystics have termed the act of creation as a sacrifice. Since He is infinte and unique, for Him to tolerate another creature is an expression of grace – and sacrifice. God, therefore, moves from all-exclusiveness to all-in-inclusiveness, where the world shares His existence and God imprisons Himself, as it were, in the finite order; this is the notion of tzimtzum. God contracted to make room for the world. But man is still overwhelmed by the cosmos and he thus insists on another act of sacrifice: he invites God to join him in his historic destiny, to become his leader, friend, and guide, but also his prisoner. It is in a sense impudent on man's part to restrict God's Presence to an even smaller area by including Him in a comparatively limited historical process, thereby making His "sacrifice" even greater. Yet God indeed engages in this act of regression, from infinite to finite, He willingly descends from the unalterable cosmic drama to the fleeting historical process."
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Mesorat HaRav Siddur, pp. 112-5.
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