Exodus שמות

Shmot opens with the list of seventy souls who went down to Egypt and moves almost at once to enslavement: "a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Yosef". Then come Moshe's birth, his flight to Midian, the burning bush, the ten plagues, the night of 15 Nisan and the departure of six hundred thousand.

The second half is what the Exodus was for: Sinai, the Ten Utterances, the civil laws of Mishpatim, the golden calf, the shattered tablets, the thirteen attributes of mercy and the second tablets. The book closes with detailed chapters on the Mishkan—how to build a portable sanctuary, of what, and in what order.

The sages call it the book of redemption and note that it does not end with freedom: freedom without Torah is incomplete, and Torah without a dwelling place is unrealised.