Few in number: With seventy souls our ancestors went down to Egypt: “God collects Israel‟s payments from many different sources.” The main purpose of Jacob‟s descent into Egypt was to show the world the greatness of God and so that they would come to God from the four corners of the earth. The world would see that Israel went down to Egypt as a small band of people and miraculously they became a mighty nation. God rewarded Israel for helping the world to see this. In Egypt the Israelite nation grew both in stature and in numbers. How did this happen? Israel remained a distinctive nation in Egypt through their practices: they circumcised their young, observed the Sabbath, and never stopped learning about their ancestors. This is what the Haggadah means when it says that “the Israelites were distinctive there.” They were great in stature, and mighty and strong in number.