רבינו בחיי — אנכי ה' אלהיך

Q — Why does the first commandment ground God's claim in yetzias mitzraim rather than in creation — "אשר הוצאתיך" instead of "אשר בראתי שמים וארץ"?

A — Rabbeinu Bachya answers on two levels at once. Pedagogically, the Aseres haDibros are addressed to a people who *saw* yetzias mitzraim with their own eyes and could not vouch for creation as eyewitnesses. But philosophically — and this is the deeper move — yetzias mitzraim itself *proves* creation. The makkos and the splitting of the sea overturned the fixed natures of fire, water, light, life and death. RBB's premise: "if the world were eternal (kadmus), nothing would ever change its nature" — only a world that was created can be re-arranged by its Maker. So a single phrase, "אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים", silently establishes חידוש העולם, השגחה, and יכולת — and yetzias mitzraim turns out to be a public, witnessed re-enactment of bereshis.