For they (the Jewish people) are my servants, whom I have taken out from the land of Egypt - they cannot be sold into slavery (25:42)

My deed of ownership precedes and voids any other.

- Rashi's commentary

In redeeming us from Egypt the Almighty made us subject to Him alone, and thus inherently and eternally free: no force or law on earth has any jurisdiction over the Jew.

- Rabbi Yehudah Lowe of Prague (the 'Maharal')

The mikveh (ritual bathhouse) in Primishlan, home to Rabbi Meir'l Primishlaner, was located at the foot of a steep hill. Even under the best of conditions it was a precarious climb down to the bathhouse and back up to town; but during the winter months, when the hill was covered with ice, the slope was completely impassable: also the most agile and daring of the young men were forced to give up after the first few steps. From the first freeze to spring thaw, the townspeople were forced to take a long, roundabout route to the mikveh.

All but one. The elderly Rebbe of Primishlan would walk down the icy slope every morning to immerse himself before praying. Straight as a rod, he would make his unfaltering way to the bathhouse and back.

One day, two young skeptics set out to prove that there was nothing extraordinary about Rabbi Meir's daily trip. But their attempt met with dismal failure: bruised, bloodied, and with half a dozen broken bones between them, they walked nowherefor a good few weeks. Later, one of them asked Rabbi Meir'l: "How do you do it?"

Said the Primishlaner: "When one is connected above, one does not fall below. Meir'l is connected above, so he does not fall below."