Drawing on the work of Anthony P. Kerby, who argues that identity, both individual and collective, is constructed through narrative, this paper examines the importance of the Exodus story for the construction of identity in early Judaism. By repeatedly telling and configuring a collective history, stories provide a framework for understanding individual events and give meaning to those events by embedding them within a conception of the past and future that renders them coherent. This is especially true of violent narratives, wherein collective identity has been forged through the experience of trauma and survival. The meaning of the past is subsequently reconfigured in response to events and situations in the present. This paper examines the exegetical Nachleben of Exodus in rabbinic writings, where the story provides a narrative framework for understanding persecution and fostering hope for an anticipated redemption. Midrash Rabbah on Exodus, for example, presents the oppression in Egypt as an attempted genocide; the story is framed in terms of national survival. The Pesikta de Rav Kahana predicts that the plagues, which afflicted Egypt according to the biblical account, will be unleashed on Rome and all nations except Israel, who accepted the Torah. In the Babylonian Talmud, tractate Sanhedrin, Exodus provides a model for and prefigures the messianic era. It also provides an explanation for the suffering of Israel. This paper explores the narrative construction of Jewish identity through these narrations of the Exodus story and its ritualized performance at the festival of Passover.