B’ezrat Hashem, we begin reading Sefer Shemot. At the beginning of the Parsha, the Ramban discusses the structure of Sefer Shemot, which opens with the descent into Mitzraim and the onset of enslavement. The subsequent Parshiot recount the makkot, the Mitzvot of Pesach, Yetziat Mitzraim, and Kriyat Yam Suf. Yitro and Mishpatim focus on the giving of the Torah, while the remaining Parshiot primarily deal with matters concerning the Mishkan.
The Ramban asks why Sefer Shemot is structured as it is. He explains that Sefer Bereshit focuses on creation and renewal, and the events of the Avot are like a creation for their descendants, foreshadowing what their descendants will experience. At Brit Bein Ha’betarim, Avraham Avinu was told his descendants would be enslaved in a foreign land, and now Sefer Shemot narrates the fulfillment of this prophecy through the first galut.
The question arises – if the exile in Egypt ends in Parshat Beshalach, why does Sefer Shemot continue with the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai and the Mishkan? The Ramban says, the galut is not complete when Bnei Yisrael left Mitzraim; it ends only when they return to their rightful place and to the status of their forefathers. Upon leaving Egypt, they were still in a land not theirs, confused in the desert. When they came to Har Sinai and constructed the Mishkan, and Hakadosh Baruch Hu rested His presence among them, that is when they returned to the status of the Avot and that is the moment they were considered fully redeemed.
