Dear Rabbi,

Answer

Indeed, the Exodus is perhaps the most important event in Jewish history.
It's during and after the Exodus that the Jewish people became a real people, a nation.
Prior to that event, they were the children of Jacob, and then slaves in Egypt.
When they came together as one people, left Egypt, dwelled in the desert for forty years and accepted God and the Torah at Sinai, they became a people governed by its own laws and statues.

I hope I answered your question.

Shabbat Shalom and Hag Hashavuot Sameah,
Rabbi Monique Susskind Goldberg
June 2005