In chapter 46 of Genesis, as the Children of Israel prepare to reunite in Egypt to wait out the famine, the Torah takes the opportunity to give us a genealogy and census of the family. Jacob’s sons and their descendants are listed, divided according to their mothers. According to the Torah, there were 70 who made the journey. The problems with the math start almost immediately. To begin with, the text only lists 69 names. Of them, only two women are named; Leah’s daughter Dina, and Asher’s daughter Serach. How is it possible that of 53 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, only one of them was a girl? The Rabbis and the Midrash offer numerous commentaries and explanations. Among them: the 70th soul was Jacob himself. Alternatively, the Divine Spirit which accompanied the family on their journey rounded up the threescore and ten. A fascinating commentary, first mentioned in the Talmud and expounded by Rashi, is that the 70th was Yocheved, the mother of Moshe, who, according to the story, was conceived inhe o Canaan and born upon the family’s arrival in Egypt. This would have made her 130 years old when Moshe was born and would add yet another miracle to his lineup. Other Rabbis dispute this assertion, however, wondering how the Torah missed this little fact, opening up a discussion about the nature of miracles and whether every supernatural occurrence needs to mentioned, since every moment of every day is inherently a miracle. Other commentaries dispute who is actually counted, since Joseph and his two sons were already in Egypt, so they technically didn’t make the journey. As to why only two women are listed (and various disagreements as to whether they are counted), presumably, the Torah is holding to its normal style of only mentioning the males in a genealogy, unless there is a female who figures prominently in the story. The Midrash and Talmud provide a number of possibilities as to why Serach is singled out, including that she was the one who gently told Jacob that Joseph was alive and that she lived until the Exodus whereupon she showed Moshe the location of Joseph’s tomb, warranting entry to The World to Come alive, like the prophet Elijah.
I would suggest another possibility for either the “rounding up” or the lousy math, take your pick. In the Torah and elsewhere, 70 is traditionally a number of completeness, of wholeness, being comprised of 7 (as in the days of creation) times 10 (Commandments, Minyan, etc.). Indeed, after all the divisiveness which has occupied this family up to now, the fact that the family is reunited, prosperous, and at relative peace is noteworthy. Consider this: this is the fifth time in the Torah that the phrase B’nai Yisrael, (the Children of Israel) is used in reference to the actual children of the original Israel, Jacob. The name will be used in this fashion only twice more; thereafter it will refer to the nation, not the family. That’s right. A total of 7.
Shabbat ShalomRabbi/Hazzan David B. Sislen
I would suggest another possibility for either the “rounding up” or the lousy math, take your pick. In the Torah and elsewhere, 70 is traditionally a number of completeness, of wholeness, being comprised of 7 (as in the days of creation) times 10 (Commandments, Minyan, etc.). Indeed, after all the divisiveness which has occupied this family up to now, the fact that the family is reunited, prosperous, and at relative peace is noteworthy. Consider this: this is the fifth time in the Torah that the phrase B’nai Yisrael, (the Children of Israel) is used in reference to the actual children of the original Israel, Jacob. The name will be used in this fashion only twice more; thereafter it will refer to the nation, not the family. That’s right. A total of 7.
Shabbat ShalomRabbi/Hazzan David B. Sislen
