In Hebrew, the book of Exodus is called "Shmot" - meaning "Names of", for Exodus 1 begins "Elu Shmot Bnai Yisrael asher Yardo Mizrayima" - these are the names of the children of Israel who went down to Egypt. In Hebrew, since ancient times, leaving the land of Israel is called "Yehrida" - going down, while going to the land of Israel is called "Aliya." Thus, not only the Bible, but the language of the Jewish people as well, made the Land of Israel an integral part of our land and culture.

Exodus tells of the enslavement of the Jewish people in Egypt, their escape from bondage, celebrated in the holiday of Passover, the start of their wandering in the desert, and the acceptance of the Ten Commandments at Sinai. This story of escape from bondage to freedom gave hope and inspiration to many generations of slaves in the United States, has been retold again and again in song, and ultimately taught the world that slavery is wrong. The last chapters of the book are devoted to instructions for how to build the tabernacle of worship that would accompany the Israelites, a mobile temple for a nomadic people.

The national significance of the book of Exodus is that it tells the story, or myth, if not literally true, of how the Jews or "bnei Yisrael" (sons of Israel) became a people.

The events described cover a period of about 180 years. The dating is uncertain. The majority of scholars favor  Ramses II or Merneptah of the 19th Dynasty, about 1290 BCE. There are many problems with this date however, as the city of Jericho was apparently destroyed earlier, and the book of Judges seems to cover a much longer period before the reign of king Saul, about 1000 B.C.E. Thutmose III or Amenhotep II of the 18th Dynasty, about 1440 BCE, are therefore favored by another group of scholars, but this conflicts with the fact that Canaan was still under Egyptian rule at the time. Skeptics doubt the historicity of the Exodus narrative, but it shows reasonable evidence of veridicality in a number of points, such as the use of the number 10, evidence of the influence of Egyptian decimal based mathematics, and the Egyptianized names of Moses and others. The song of Miriam probably dates from about 1500-1200 BCE. National myths usually invoked descent from Gods. It would  be peculiar if a people had invented a tale of descent from slaves.

The story of Exodus exemplifies some rather special features of Jewish history and self identity. The Jews were a people before they had a land. Their national identity was syncretic with their religious identity, and the story or myth of the formation of the Jewish people, more than any other, weaves together religious, national and "tribal" themes.

Some highlights:

Exodus 1 Exodus 2 - Moses in the bullrushes

Exodus 7 The first of the ten plagues of Egypt.

Exodus 12 - The commandment to keep Passover.

Exodus 14 The actual escape from Egypt of the Israelites and the pursuit of Pharoah.

Exodus 15 - The song of Miriam - one of the oldest surviving Semitic ballads.

Exodus 19 (and following) - Moses receives the ten commandments and is instructed int he law.

Exodus 32 - The Golden Calf - The skeptical Israelites make a golden calf while Moses is on Mt. Sinai. The calf may be a kin of the god Sin, worshipped in pre-Muslim times in the Arabian peninsula and elsewhere.