This second of five volumes of Studies on the Weekly Torah Readings (the Pentateuch) continues to focus on the creative approach to Biblical commentary of the 19th-century philosopher and educator, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch.

Rabbi Hirsch's ideas are based on analyses of the written text, allowing the text to speak for itself through the use of language and imagery. His clearly developed philosophy of Judaism pervades the commentary and evokes enduring concepts and values reflecting the Torah's contribution to contemporary Jewish and general society.

The second book of the Torah, Exodus, changes focus from family dynamics to a Semitic "people" called Israelites (offspring of the 12 sons of Jacob), who are enslaved and oppressed in Egypt. In stark contrast to the elaborate family stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, their wives and their children, this Book of Exodus is not about individual families, but primarily about the development and education of the Jewish Nation.