The Torah begins, as we know, with בראשית ברא אלקים. “In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth.” And Rashi notes that the whole story of Creation ostensibly didn’t even need to be told. The Torah should have begun with the first mitzvah, because the Torah is about mitzvos. Why did it begin with the story of Creation?
Because of Eretz Yisrael. It’s so everyone will know that the world belongs to Hashem, as He created it, and He took Eretz Yisrael away from the nations who lived there and gave it to us, the Jewish people.
So the Torah opens with Eretz Yisrael, and then moves relatively quickly on to Avraham Avinu. When Hashem made a bris, a covenant, with Avraham Avinu, what was the big promise that Avraham received? Eretz Yisrael. לזרעך נתתי את הארץ הזאת – “To your offspring I gave this land.”
It doesn’t say that Hashem promised Torah and mitzvos to Avraham. The only thing He promised him was the right to Eretz Yisrael. When Avraham Avinu circumcised himself, he received Eretz Yisrael for it.
Later, Moshe Rabbeinu was sent to bring the Jewish people out of Egypt. The goal was to release them from slavery and bring them to Eretz Yisrael. Hashem told him, at the burning bush, וארד להצילו מיד מצרים ולהעלותו מן הארץ ההיא, אל ארץ טובה ורחבה אל ארץ זבת חלב ודבש, אל מקום הכנעני והחתי והאמרי והפרזי והחוי והיבוסי – “I will descend to save them from Egypt and bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey....”
Eretz Yisrael once again.
Hashem did mention, in passing, that they would receive Torah and mitzvos at Har Sinai. However, the Torah was not specified as the purpose of the Exodus from Egypt, but rather as a sign that they are going to Eretz Yisrael. וזה לך האות כי אנכי שלחתיך, בהוציאך את העם ממצרים תעבדון את האלקים על ההר הזה – “And this is the sign for you that I sent you: when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will serve G-d on this mountain.”
