EXOD175 …in Exodus the role of security and rootedness in the land is made the background and basis of the central rituals of the people. The events of the Exodus are to be retold and reenacted when Israel settles in the promised land (Exodus 13:3-16). This injunction might appear to emphasize the extreme dependence of the people upon the land--as if the land were the only place where these events could be relived in memory and reexperienced in ritual. Yet in this very central moment of Jewish faith and history, the subtlety of the dialectic of the people's relationship to the land is reasserted. The revelation does not take place in the Promised Land. The people is led forth into a desert and there at Sinai the great covenant is proclaimed and ratified (Exodus 16, 19, 20; Jer. 2:2). The rabbis clearly understood the message: The Torah was given in the desert, an undefined place, open to all, to teach that it is not specific to a single land or framework (Medrash Rabbah). At the moment of peak affirmation comes the reminder that man's ultimate relationship is with God. Of course, the two bonds are not contradictory; they exist in dialectical relationship.