וְזָכַרְתָּ֗ כִּ֣י עֶ֤בֶד הָיִ֙יתָ֙ בְּמִצְרַ֔יִם וַֽיִּפְדְּךָ֛ יְהֹוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ מִשָּׁ֑ם עַל־כֵּ֞ן אָנֹכִ֤י מְצַוְּךָ֙ לַעֲשׂ֔וֹת אֶת־הַדָּבָ֖ר הַזֶּֽה׃
But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the Eternal your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this thing.
Classical sources beyond the TT-numbered main ring: Rashi on Devarim 24:18; Ibn Ezra on Devarim 24:18. (Ohr HaChaim has no discrete comment on this verse in the available text.)
Lemma: וְזָכַרְתָּ כִּי עֶבֶד הָיִיתָ.
וְזָכַרְתָּ – עַל מְנָת כֵּן פְּדִיתִיךָ, לִשְׁמֹר חֻקּוֹתַי אֲפִלּוּ יֵשׁ חֶסְרוֹן כִּיס בַּדָּבָר.
English: “But you shall remember [that you were a servant in Egypt and the Eternal your God released you thence]” — I released you only on this condition: that you observe My statutes even when there is monetary loss in the matter.
וְזָכַרְתָּ כִּי עֶבֶד הָיִיתָ – בַּעֲבוּר כֵּן זְכֹר הַגֵּר שֶׁלֹּא תַּטֶּה מִשְׁפָּטוֹ; וְיֵשׁ מֵאֵלֶּה הַמִּשְׁפָּטִים שֶׁכְּבָר הִזְכִּירָם לָאָבוֹת גַּם יַזְכִּירֵם שֵׁנִית לַבָּנִים.
English: “You shall remember that you were a slave” — for that reason remember the stranger, that you not pervert his judgment; and some of these laws He already mentioned to the fathers, and He mentions them a second time to the children.
On the daf / in context: The verse closes the block of laws protecting the stranger, orphan, and widow (24:17). Rashi turns the memory of Egypt into the explicit condition of the redemption itself: observance even at personal cost. Ibn Ezra ties the same memory to fair judgment of the stranger and notes the Torah’s deliberate repetition of these social laws across generations. The parallel formula at 24:22 frames the agricultural gifts in the same light.
Derash on the slavery-memory formula (Rashi / Ibn Ezra) — the verse supplies both the reason and the condition for the preceding mitzvos of justice toward the vulnerable.
The commands that protect the stranger, orphan, and widow are grounded in Israel’s own experience of slavery and redemption; Rashi reads the redemption as conditioned on observing these statutes even when they involve monetary loss.