ALL THE SOULS COMING TO EGYPT WITH JACOB, THOSE DESCENDED FROM HIM, EXCLUDING THE WIVES OF JACOB'S SONS, ALL THE SOULS WERE SIXTY SIX. AND JOSEPH'S SONS, WHO WERE BORN TO HIM IN EGYPT, TWO SOULS; ALL THE SOULS OF THE HOUSE OF JACOB WHO CAME TO EGYPT WERE SEVENTY.

(Bereishit 46:26-7)

 

Abba Halifa Keruya asked R. Hiyyz bar Abba: The sum you find [written] is seventy, but [when counting] individuals you find seventy less one!.. He said: I had a precious pearl in my hand and you want me to lose it, so said R. Hama bar Hanina: It was Yocheved; she was still in the womb during the journey and was born between the walls [of Egypt], as it says: who gave birth to her for Levi in Egypt (Bamidbar 20) - her birth was in Egypt, but her mother did not go through the pregnancy in Egypt.

(Bava Batra 123a-b)

 

... there is one who says that the number seventy is an approximation, and that there were sixty-nine. That exegete is mistaken, since we find that he had thirty-three sons and daughters, but they were [only] thirty-two. The midrash that Yocheved was born between the walls is also strange. Why didn't Scripture mention the wonder performed for her sake - that [if we assume that Yocheved was born as Jacob's family entered Egypt] she gave birth to Moses at the age of one hundred and thirty!? [After all,] it is mentioned that Sarah gave birth when she was ["only"] ninety years old! As if this were not troubling enough, the authors of the piyutim [hymns] wrote in a song for Simhat Torah, "My mother Yocheved, be consoled for my death, and she was two hundred and fifty years old [when I - Moses - died], and Ahiya lived so and so many years." This is [merely] an aggadah or a lone opinion. I think that Jacob is included in the calculation [of the seventy souls], as if to say all of his sons and daughters plus himself were thirty-three. The proof for this is that it first says Jacob and his children. If someone argues against me that it says, Now all those descended from Jacob were seventy souls (Shemot 1:5), it is enough [to answer him] that Scripture did not hesitate to leave out one from seventy when it said, These are Jacob's sons who were born to him in Padan Aram (Bereishit 35:26) even though Benjamin was not born there. There are two additional [textual] witnesses to this matter. One is that it says, And these are the names of the children of Israel who were coming to Egypt: Jacob and his sons Jacob's firstborn was Reuben (Bereishit 46:8); here Jacob is mentioned as belonging to the children of Israel, since Scripture used language appropriate to the majority [of the people involved]. The second witness is all the souls of the house of Jacob who came to Egypt were seventy (Bereishit 46:27); but Manasseh and Ephraim did not come to Egypt - they were already there and had been born there; later it is written With seventy souls, Your forefathers descended to Egypt (Devarim 10:22), but those two had not descended. This verse also serves as evidence that Jacob was included in the calculation, because he had a soul, and that is main thing.

(Ibn Ezra Bereishit 46:23)

 

 

And the Crooked shall be Straight

Aviad Stollman

In this week's parasha we reach the climax of the dizzying drama which took hold of Jacob's family when Judah's heartrending words brought Joseph to reveal himself to his brothers. Later we read of Jacob's arrival in Egypt and his exciting meeting with his beloved son, Joseph. Next week we shall read of Jacob's last days, when he summarizes his biography with the words: The days of the years of my life have been few and miserable (Bereishit 47:9). Jacob's life was a hard one indeed, full of setbacks and tragedies, starting from his brother who wished to kill him, through his uncle who cheated him, his sons who turned the lands' inhabitants against him, and the long years of Joseph's disappearance, who, as our parasha tells us, Jacob would finally see again only at the end of his life.

The climax described in our parasha offers a good opportunity to consider the reasons why Jacob's life was so difficult. It seems that the root of all his troubles stems from his pursuit of the birthright and its attendant blessing. It was that pursuit that caused Esau to seek Jacob's death and which forced Jacob to flee to the arms of the deceitful Laban. It was Laban's deceit that led to Jacob's marriage to a pair of rival sisters whose quarrelling children brought the greatest tragedy of his life upon him; the loss of his beloved son.

This destructive tendency was evident from the moment Jacob emerged from his mother's womb: and his hand grasped Esau's heel (25:26), a tendency that would eventually be revealed to be spiced with deception - Is it for this reason that he was named Jacob? For he has deceived me twice; he took my birthright, and behold, now he has taken my blessing (27:36). A plain reading would seem to have it that Jacob played a passive role in his father's deception. After all, his mother Rebekkah came from a family of expert cheaters and her impudence does not surprise us. However,

a careful reading of Scripture makes it clear that Jacob was not merely his mother's passive accomplice, as we may have been taught to believe; take notice that Jacob tells his mother: Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, whereas I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will touch me, and I will appear to him as a deceiver, and I will bring upon myself a curse and not a blessing (27:11). Jacob does not reprove his mother for daring to deceive his father and her husband. Rather, he asks her to improve the tactics of deception which they deployed together against Jacob.

At least during the first stage of his biography, dishonesty is very salient in Jacob's life and in the lives of those surrounding him and the Sages did not spare him from their criticism. Bereishit Rabbah (70; pg. 819 in the Theodore –Albeck edition) describes the events of Jacob and Leah's wedding night:

All that night he would call out to her, "Rachel!" and she would answer him. In the morning and behold, she was Leah, and he said: "How you have cheated me, cheater's daughter!" She said to him: "Is there a teacher without students? Didn't your father cry out, ‘Esau!' - and you answered him? So too, you called out and I answered you."

That is to say: All through that dark wedding night Jacob called out "Rachel" and the woman who was with him answered him. In the morning he discovered that she was Leah, and called her "Cheater, daughter of a cheater! I know your father Laban, and it appears that the apple does not fall far from the tree." Leah answered him wittily, "Is there a teacher without students? I am your pupil! You are the cheater: did you not cheat your father - when he called out "Esau" you answered him as if you were Esau!? I did not learn from my cheating father, but rather from you!

The idea behind this drasha is that Jacob suffered poetic justice (mida keneged mida); he had cheated his father - and Leah and Laban cheated him in return. It can be stated from a literary perspective that the sale of Joseph alludes even more strongly to poetic justice. Jacob's sons take Joseph's coat and dip it in the blood of a goat slaughtered for that purpose; when Isaac is cheated, we read that hides of the goat kids were placed on Jacob's hands and on the smoothness of his neck.

According to Laban, Jacob cheated him and stole his children (and grandchildren): And Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done, that you concealed from me, and led away my daughters like prisoners of war? Why have you fled secretly, and concealed from me, and not told me? I would have sent you away with joy and with songs, and with drum and with harp" (31:27). Perhaps, if we follow the Sages' lead and search for irony and poetic justice, we might say that Jacob was punished for this act when Joseph hid from him his two grandsons who had been born in Egypt - Manasseh and Ephraim.

We can continue this line of interpretation and add yet another instance of deceit. This time it is not Jacob who deceives, but rather the person closest to him, his wife Rachel, who cheats her father: But Rachel had taken the teraphim and placed them into the camel saddle and sat upon them; so Laban felt about the entire tent but did not find [them]. And she said to her father, "Let my lord not be annoyed, for I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me." So he searched, but did not find the teraphim (31:34-5). As Scripture makes clear, punishment for this act of deception was not long in coming. After all, Jacob had promised Laban: The one with whom you find your gods shall not live. In the presence of our brothers, recognize for yourself what is with me, and take [it] for yourself." For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them (35:19). Indeed, Rachel died on the way by Efrata (35:19).

We find the first signs of Jacob's repentance in parashat VaYishlah, when he returns to Esau the blessing that he had cheated him out of: Now take my blessing, which has been brought to you (33:11). It seems that this is the reason why we are told that Jacob's name was changed to Israel in that parasha. The change of name alludes to a substantial and psychological change - from akivut ["crookdness," containing three letters of "Jacob"] to yeshirut ["straightness," containing the first three letters of "Israel"] - ve'haya ha'akov le'mishor - the crooked shall be straight (Isaiah 40:4). However, despite the fact that Jacob succeeded in changing, it could be that the members of the second generation were sullied by their family's cheating ways. That was true of the episode of Dinah and Shechem, and so it was with the story of Judah and Tamar, which was also based upon deceit - Judah cheated her and she cheated him. Perhaps we can add to the list Joseph's behavior that involved deceit and deception towards his brothers.

In the final days of Jacob's life, described in parashat VaYehi, he blessed his two grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh. When Jacob placed his right hand on Ephraim, his son Joseph told him: "Not so, Father, for this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head." But his father refused, and he said, "I know, my son, I know; he too will become a people, and he too will be great. But his younger brother will be greater than he, and his children['s fame] will fill the nations." At this point Jacob already realized that the status of firstborn is meaningless, while his son Joseph - who had been separated from his father before the latter internalized this lesson - did not understand his father's gesture.

Jacob internalized and passed on the biblical message that the status of the firstborn is meaningless: Abel rather than Cain, Isaac rather than Ishmael, Jacob rather than Esau, Judah rather than Reuben, David rather than Eliav, Solomon rather than Adoniahu - all of these were chosen despite their not being firstborns. Being the firstborn is an external matter; when Samuel asked God to make his firstborn son Eliav king, God answered him: Look not upon his appearance, or the height of his stature, for I have rejected him, for it is not as man sees, (what is visible) to the eyes, while the Lord sees into the heart (I Samuel 16:7).

Our people are called by Israel's name rather than by Jacob's name. We must be honest with ourselves and with others. As the RaMBaM wrote in Hilkhot Deot 2:6 (Raymond L. Weiss, translator): "A man is forbidden to make a habit of using smooth and deceptive language. There shall not be one thing in his mouth and another in his heart, but what is within shall be like what is without. The matter in his heart shall be the same as what is in his mouth. It is forbidden to delude one's fellow creatures, even a Gentile... even one word of deception and fraud is forbidden. Rather, he shall have lips of truth, a steadfast spirit, and a heart pure of all mischief and intrigue."

Rabbi Dr. Aviad Stollman teaches in the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem and serves as rabbi to the Zemer HaZayit congregation in Efrat.

 

 

Then Judah approached him: You are Approachable for the Negotiation of Emotion-laden Positions

Va'yigash elav Yehuda [Then Judah approached him] - R. Yehudah says: Approached for battle, as it is written, Then Yoav and the people who were with him approached to make battle. R. Nehemiah says: Approached to reconcile him, as it is written, then the children of Judah approached Joshua to reconcile him. The rabbis say: Approached to pray, as it is written, Elijah approached.

R. Eliezer combined the interpretations: If for war - I will come; if for reconciliation - I will come; if for prayer - I will come.

R. Meir says: Va'yigash refers only to peace, for it is said, and they approached... and he inquired of their peace.

R. Yehudah says: Va'yigash refers only to sacrifice, for it is written Va'yigash [and he brought near] the bull of the sin-offering.

R. Yossi says: Va'yigash refers only to rebuke, for it is said, and they said, draw close [gash hala].

R. Natan says: Va'yigash refers only to touching, for it is said, Please draw near, and I will touch my son.

(Yalkut Shimoni Bereishit 44:150)

 

His heart failed… their father Jacob's spirit came to life: The Connection Between Body And Soul

His heart failed - His heart stopped beating and his breathing ceased, for cardiac activity stopped and he was as dead. This is a known phenomenon resulting from sudden joy. Medical texts state that the aged and weak may not be able to withstand this; many faint at the sudden reception of good tidings; the heart suddenly expands and opens, and the warmed blood goes out and spreads throughout the external portions of the body, and as a result of its cooling, the heart ceases. The old man fell as if dead, and he said that he believed them not, informing us that he stood a good part of the day, and he lies in silence because he did not believe them, for he knew that this fainting would lead to their shouting at him, accustoming him to this joy until it is absorbed in calm. This is the reason that they spoke to him all of Joseph's words which he had spoken to them, and when he saw the wagons etc. - they were shouting Joseph's words into his ears, and bringing the wagons before him, and then his spirit returned to him, and his breathing was restored, and he lived, and this is the meaning of their father Jacob's spirit came to life.

(RaMBaN, Bereishit 45:26)

 

Now it will be, when Pharaoh has you called and says: "What is it that you do?"

In a land such as Egypt, where a person is judged only on the basis of his labor, where a person is born not as a person but as an artisan, a farmer, soldier, etc. - the question regarding occupation would naturally be the first question. But they will fearlessly declare the unpleasant truth; the Egyptians' abhorrence of their occupation and the nations' general loathing of the Jews, are the primary means of survival for this tribe which is destined to pass the days in isolation. As long as the light of morality has not dawned upon the nations, the barriers that the nations raised against Israel protect him from contamination by the corruption of the peoples among whom he will walk for centuries.

(Hirsch, ibid., 46:33)

 

The Fast of the Tenth of Tevet: Remembrance of the Event or the Report?

The fast of the tenth is the tenth of Tevet (the tenth month), when the King of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem, as it says; Again in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, write thee the name of the day, even of this same day: the King of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day (Ezekiel 24). And I say the fast of the tenth is the fifth of Tevet, but in Judea they fast on account of the event, and in the Diaspora they fast on account of the report, as it says: And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me saying, The city is smitten (ibid. 33), and they heard, and made the day of the report as the day of the burning, and I prefer what I say to what he says.

(Sifri Va'et'hanan, 31)

 

 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The days of the years of my sojournings are one hundred thirty years. The days of the years of my life have been few and miserable, and they have not reached the days of the years of the lives of my forefathers in the days of their sojournings."

(Bereishit 47:9)

 

The days of the years of my sojournings - the years of my sojourning, for I was always a stranger in the land, and all of the early saints referred to life in this world as that of a stranger, for indeed it is not the important thing, it is like a passing shadow compared to life in the world to come. Thus, David said: I am a sojourner with You (Psalms 39:13). When the people pledged themselves to the service of the House of God, David said, For we are like sojourners before you and like residents as were all of our forefathers, in that our life on earth is like a shadow (I Chronicles 29:15). This is also proof that these holy people knew about the survival of the soul, for he who sojourns in another country will eventually return home.

(Reggio ad. loc.)

 

The days of the years of my life have been few and miserable - I know no reason for this comment by our aged patriarch. Is it ethical for a person to complain to a king? And what sense is there in saying and they have not reached the days of the years of the lives of my forefathers? He may yet possibly attain them and live even longer than they did!

It appears to me that our father Jacob had turned gray, and he appeared very old. Pharaoh wondered about his age, for most people of his time did not live very long as the lifespan of mankind had already been shortened. He therefore asked him, "How many are the days of the years of your life, as I have not seen a man as ages as you in my entire kingdom?" Then Jacob answered that he was one hundred and thirty years of age, and that he should not wonder at the years he had lived for they are few when compared with the life spans of his fathers who had lived longer. However, on account of their having been hard years of toil and groaning, he had turned gray and he appeared extremely old.

(RaMBaN ad loc, Chavel translation)

 

 

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