Chasidut zu Schemot 8:22

One may be tempted to ask what was such a great miracle ‎about this, so much so that a day has been “named” in ‎commemoration of it? How could this miracle be compared to ‎G’d’s splitting the sea to enable the Jewish people to traverse it ‎dry footed, whereas the Egyptians in pursuit of them were ‎drowned one and all? The answer is that on these four days the ‎Jewish people served the Lord from considerations that we have ‎described as ‎מוחין דגדלות‎, an intellectual maturity, i.e. totally ‎fearless, not motivated by selfish considerations at all, not like at ‎the sea of reeds when they were all afraid for their lives. If we ‎needed proof of the “maturity” of the Jewish people at that time ‎we need only look at Exodus 8,22 where Moses and Aaron in ‎response to Pharaoh expressing willingness to let the Israelites ‎sacrifice to their G’d inside Egypt, responded by saying: ‎הן נזבח ‏את תועבת מצרים לעיניהם ולא יסקלונו?‏‎, “Surely if we are to sacrifice a ‎deity of the Egyptian people before their very eyes they will stone ‎us to death?” Clearly, even Moses was convinced that at that ‎stage the Jewish people would not be prepared to follow such ‎instructions even if he -were to issue them, as they would fear for ‎their lives. We have proof of how much the people had matured ‎between chapter 8 when they had not yet experienced the ‎Egyptians undergoing one plague after another. Clearly, from this ‎verse it is evident that the Israelites at the time Moses had been ‎appointed felt that they were under constant supervision by the ‎Egyptians and they would not have dared to do what is described ‎in Exodus 12.‎
It is not unreasonable to speculate that the reason why G’d ‎commanded them to take the intended paschal lamb already on ‎the 10th of the month and to do so publicly, was to enable them ‎to acquire the merit of this lofty level of faith in G’d. This brings ‎us to a better understanding of the meaning of Yitro’s words ‎reported in Exodus 18,9-11 ‎ויחד יתרו על כל הטובה אשר עשה ה' ‏לישראל אשר הצילו מיד מצרים.ויאמר יתרו ברוך ה' אשר הציל אתכם מיד ‏מצרים ומיד פרעה אשר הציל את‎ ‎העם מתחת יד מצרים. עתה ידעתי כי גדול ‏ה' מכל האלוהים כי בדבר אשר זדו עליהם.‏‎, “Yitro rejoiced about all the ‎good Hashem had done for Israel, that He had saved them ‎from the power of Egypt. Yitro said: “blessed the Lord Who has ‎saved you from Egypt and the hand of Pharaoh. Now I know that ‎‎Hashem is the greatest of all deities, as He punished the ‎Egyptians in a manner befitting their sins.”