Shemot begins with Rashi telling us that even though Jacob and his children were each named at the end of Bereishit, God names them again here to let us know how much he loved them. Thus, the second book of the Bible, which tells the story of the birth and redemption of the People of Israel, often referred to as Exodus – we call Shemot, Names.
Within a dozen verses, the idyllic establishing paragraph makes way for the harsh reality of slavery. The new oppressor and regime are introduced by saying that they didn
