The Missing Years

The pasuk tells us we were in Mitzrayim for 430 years. The intense bitterness of the enslavement was 86 years. With this we can explain וחמשים עלו בני ישראל מארץ מצרים, we left Mitzrayim after serving just 1/5 of the time, as 86 of 430 is 1/5.

According to this we need to make up 344 years (for the difference between 430 and 86). These years were fulfilled during times of persecution like when the gemara says it was a שעת השמד (time of persecution) against the Jews. The various persecutions in exiles we have endured are calculated towards the missing 344 years, as these years were supposed to be in Mitzrayim. An allusion to this is found in the word שמד, which has a gematria of 344, the number of years missing from Mitzrayim!