Before the Jewish people left Egypt, G-d had a request:
"Please speak to the people, and let each man request from his friend gold and silver articles. Let every woman make the same request of her friends."
The language in the verse is surprisingly gentle. G-d usually commands the Israelites. Why the solicitous request, "Please speak"?
The Sages noted the unusual wording. According to Rabbi Yanai, G-d was asking the Jewish people for a favor: Please request gold and silver from your Egyptian neighbors, so that Abraham will not be able to claim that I failed to keep My promise to him that his children will leave Egypt with great wealth [Berachot 9a-9b].
If G-d wanted the Israelites to leave Egypt with riches, surely He could have arranged it without any effort on their
Why did G-d want the Israelites to borrow from the Egyptians?
part. Why did G-d want them to borrow from the Egyptians in order to fulfill His promise to Abraham?
Presumably, requesting handouts from their Egyptians neighbors was embarrassing and demeaning. Why put the Jewish people through this ordeal?
I.L. Peretz tells the story of Bontsha the Silent, a simple Jew who accepted all of life's humiliations - and he suffered far more than his fair share - with quiet resignation. His life and death went unnoticed in this world. But in Paradise, the arrival of Bontsha the Silent was a major event. Trumpets blew, important angels rushed to greet him, and he was crowned with a golden crown.
Bontsha reacted to all this commotion exactly as he would in this world: with silence. His silence was due to his great trepidation; he was certain that a terrible mistake had been made. However, when Bontsha's trial began, and the defending angel related the long tale of misfortune and mistreatment that had been Bontsha's daily lot, he slowly began to take heart. It is me they are taking about!
"Despite everything," the defending angel concluded, "Bontsha never complained. He never protested, not against his fellow man, and not against God." The prosecuting angel conceded that just as Bontsha had always been silent, so too he would be silent. Then the heavenly Judge turned to Bontsha, and informed him, "Your reward is not just one little portion of Paradise, but everything! Whatever you want!"
All turned to Bontsha, eager to hear what great reward he would request. Bontsha meekly responded, "What I would like, Your Honor, is to be served every morning a warm roll with fresh butter."
There was shocked silence in the court. The angels bent their heads in shame, and the prosecutor laughed a bitter laugh.
Slavery is not just a legal status; it is also a state of mind. It is not enough to emancipate the slaves. They must be trained for independence, for courage and greatness. A lifetime of oppression can create a poverty of spirit, where the greatest good imaginable is a warm roll with fresh butter. The Torah relates that the enslaved Israelites were incapable of accepting Moses' message of hope due to "smallness of spirit" . Even in the desert, the 
A lifetime of oppression can create a poverty of spirit.
former slaves would remember Egypt nostalgically, fondly recalling 'sitting by the pot of meat' as they ate fish, onions, and melons .
Asking the Hebrew slaves to borrow gold and silver from their neighbors was an educational exercise. G-d wanted to raise their ambitions above fish and onions. Of course, gold is not the true goal. Therefore the Israelites were only entreated, not commanded. Only regarding spiritual goals and mitzvot does G-d command us.
It was not easy for the Hebrew slaves to borrow from their former masters. The Midrash tells us they would have happily foregone the Egyptian gold and leave Egypt right away. But they would require courage and greatness of spirit for the difficult journey ahead. Maimonides wrote in the Guide for the Perplexed that the forty years of hardship in the wilderness instilled in the former slaves and their descendants those traits of independence and courage that a free nation must have.
G-d desires humility - but the true humility of Abraham and Moses, great men willing to argue against Him - not the passive meekness of a Bontsha.
[adapted from HaRav Avraham Yitschak Hakohen Kook, Ein Eyah vol. I, p. 44]