The Egyptian exile, with its backbreaking labor, was the crucible of fire that refined the Jewish people, transforming them into a proper vessel to contain the illumination of the revelation of Torah on Mount Sinai.
So it is with our present exile as well, when we find ourselves ‘pounded’ by the harshness of the exile. But it is precisely this ‘pounding’ that will bring us to the ‘light’ of Moshiach and the Messianic Era, as our Sages commented, ‘It is only when the olive is crushed that the oil can emerge.’
(Peninei HaGeula)