One of the deep-seated tropes that helped to shape Zionism’s unfolding story of redemption in the twentieth century was perceived, received, and reproduced through the lens of the Exodus narrative – so foundational a text to virtually every current and aspect of Jewish culture for generations. Indeed, there was much in the Exodus narrative that might be used to explicate the nature and meaning of redemption, in both the national and universal senses, and it is not surprising, then, that the story of the Israelites’ departure from Egypt had become over the course of centuries an all but ubiquitous trope for many societies, well beyond the confines of Jewish or Hebrew culture, fusing in its own life and cultural reception the elements of national, personal, and universal redemption. And yet, there are surprising aspects to the ways in which the Exodus story was present – and at times absent or understated – in the making of Hebrew culture in Palestine.