On the 15th of Nissan of the year 2018 from creation (1743 BCE) G-d forged a special covenant with Abraham in which the destiny of the Jewish people was foretold: the Holy Land was bequeathed to them as their eternal heritage, but first they would have to experience galut–exile and persecution. “And He said to Abram: ‘Know surely that your descendents shall be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will be enslaved to them, and they will afflict them four hundred years… and afterwards they shall come out with great wealth.’ And when the sun went down and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace and a burning torch which passed between those pieces… On that day G-d made a covenant with Abram, saying: ‘To your seed I have given these land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates’” (Genesis 15:13-18).