TO GO DOWN. Me-redah (to go down) is an infinitive. Its first root letter is missing.¹ is made up of the infinitive redah (go down) plus the prepositional mem. The root of redah is yod, resh, dalet. Me-redah is similar to tenah in Whose majesty is rehearsed (tenah) above the heavens (Ps. 8:2).² is nun, tet, nun. Both redah (whose yod is missing) and tenah (whose nun is missing) are infinitives whose first root letters are missing.

footnotes: ¹ Me-redah ² The root of tenah

[AND I WILL ALSO SURELY BRING THEE UP AGAIN.] This means you will be buried in the land of Israel.³

footnotes: ³ Jacob never came back from Egypt. Hence I.E. interprets our verse as referring to Jacob’s body.

AND JOSEPH SHALL PUT HIS HAND UPON THINE EYES. At the time of your death. It is customary for the living to close the eyes of the deceased upon their death.

HIS DAUGHTERS. This refers only to Dinah.⁴ It is possible that Dinah had maid servants of her own age who grew up with her in Jacob’s house and who because of Dinah are called Jacob’s daughters. Jacob’s “daughters” can be compared to Michal’s “children” (II Sam. 21:8).⁵. 19b. See also I.E.’s comments on Gen. 36:2 and the notes thereto. The same interpretation is to be given to and his sons’ daughters since Jacob had only one granddaughter.⁶

footnotes: ⁴ Jacob had no other daughters. ⁵ Michal’s “children” were in fact the children of Merab. Scripture refers to them as Michal’s children because she raised them. Cf. Sanhedrin ⁶ Serah, the daughter of Asher (v. 17). There, too, “daughters” refers to the maid-servants who grew up with her.

THE SON OF A CANAANITISH WOMAN. This proves that Jacob’s sons married Aramean, Egyptian, Edomite and Midianite women.⁷ Shaul’s mother’s nationality is singled out in order to indicate that Simeon did wrong in marrying a Canaanitish woman. It is for this reason that Scripture records the death of Er and Onan (v. 12). Scripture records their demise in order to indicate that they died because they were the sons of a Canaanitish woman (Gen. 38:2).⁸

footnotes: ⁷ The fact that Scripture singles out Shaul as being the son of a Canaanitish woman indicates that only he was the son of a Canaanitish woman, but not the others mentioned here. That Simeon did wrong in marrying her is obvious since Abraham told his servant not to take a Canaanitish woman for Isaac, and Isaac told the same to Jacob. ⁸ The Canaanite women were evil. Er and Onan followed in their mother’s footsteps and were punished by God. Scripture thus mentions their death as an object lesson (Filwarg).

AND NAAMAN. This Naaman was a son of Benjamin. I note this because Benjamin also had a grandson called Naaman (Num. 26:40).

AND THE SONS OF DAN: HUSHIM. It is possible that Dan had two sons and one of them died and Scripture did not mention him.⁹ It is also possible that the verse employs “sons” for stylistic reasons.¹⁰ with regard to the other children, it employs the same form here for the sake of consistency (Weiser). Nahmanides (v. 7) writes, “It is Biblical style to refer to an individual in the plural form when mentioning the genealogy of any people. For example, And the sons of Dan: Hushim; (Gen. 46:23) And of the sons of Palu: Eliab (Num. 26:8).” This is apparently what I.E. had in mind (Krinsky).

footnotes: ⁹ Scripture says “sons” but lists only one son, hence I.E.’s comment. ¹⁰ Since Scripture used sons of

[ALL THE SOULS OF THE HOUSE OF JACOB, THAT CAME INTO EGYPT, WERE THREESCORE AND TEN.] An exegate says that three score and ten is a round number, since in fact they numbered sixty-nine.¹¹ However, this commentator erred, since we find Scripture stating, with regard to Leah’s offspring who numbered thirty-two, all the souls of his sons and daughters were thirty and three (v. 15). ¹² The Midrash tries to solve the problem by saying that Jochebed was born between the ramparts when they entered Egypt. ¹³ 123a-b. The point being that when Jacob was going down to Egypt, Jochebed was yet in her mother’s womb and could not be counted as a person. However, as soon as the Israelites come to Egypt she was born. Hence 70 descendants of Jacob came to Egypt. However, this, too, presents a problem, viz., why doesn’t Scripture record the great wonder of Jochebed giving birth to Moses when she was one hundred and thirty years old?¹⁴). Moses was 80 at the time of the Exodus (Ex. 7:7); thus Moses was born 130 years after the descent into Egypt. If his mother was born at the beginning of the descent then she had to be 130 years old at the time of Moses’ birth. Furthermore, why does Scripture note that Sarah was ninety when she bore a son?¹⁵ And as if we didn’t have enough problems with the above, the liturgical poets composed a hymn for Simchat Torah reading, Jochebed my mother will be comforted after me thereby indicating that Jochebed was two hundred and fifty years old at the time of Moses’ death.¹⁶ As to the Midrash which states that Ahijah the Shilonite lived for hundreds of years,¹⁷ 121b and Seder Olam 1. There it is stated that the prophet Ahijah, who prophesied during the reign of King Jeroboam, saw Amram the father of Moses. Ahijah thus lived close to 600 years. This is therefore a greater miracle than that of Jochebed, and yet Scripture doesn’t mention it. Hence this Midrash can serve as support for the liturgical poets that Scripture omits certain miracles (Cherez). Krinsky explains that the liturgical poets can argue that if Ahijah could live 600 years, why is it hard to believe that Jochebed was still alive at the time of Moses’ death? it is an aggadic statement or an individual opinion.¹⁸ I believe that the way to solve our problem is by recognizing the fact that the Bible includes Jacob among the seventy who came into Egypt and starts the count of the seventy from him. The verse (15) is to be interpreted as if it read: all the souls of his sons and his daughters plus himself were thirty-three. Proof that this is the way to interpret this verse is that Scripture previously states, And these are the names of the children of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons (v. 8).¹⁹ Should one argue and say, “Does not Scripture explicitly state, And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls (Ex. 1:5)?²⁰ Know that Scripture isn’t concerned with noting that one of the seventy did not come from Jacob’s loins, as it didn’t bother to leave out Benjamin when it said, These are the sons of Jacob, that were born to him in Paddan-aram (Gen. 35:26), even though Benjamin was not born there. We have two proofs in our own Torah portion that this is the style of Scripture. First, the Pentateuch states, And these are the names of the children of Israel, who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons (v. 8). The Torah thus includes Jacob among the sons of Israel. It does so because Scripture speaks of the majority of those who came to Egypt. Secondly, Scripture states, all the souls of the house of Jacob, that came into Egypt, were three score and ten (Gen. 46:27). However, Manasseh and Ephraim did not come into Egypt, they were there to begin with, having been born in Egypt.²¹ In the same vein another verse²². 38. reads, Thy fathers went down into Egypt with three score and ten souls (Deut. 10:22).²³ has been translated as souls, in keeping with I.E.’s translation. However, as noted, Manasseh and Ephraim did not go down to Egypt. This verse²⁴ is also proof that Jacob is counted among the seventy, for he had a soul²⁵. Since Jacob had a soul he is included in the souls that came into Egypt and similarly with Deut. 10:22. and he was the most important of them all.²⁶

footnotes: ¹¹ The names of Jacob’s descendants listed in our chapter come to 69, not 70. ¹² Verses 8-14 list the children of Leah and their offspring. Thirty-two individuals are listed by name. However, in giving their total Scripture says they were thirty-three. Now 70 is a round number with regard to 69. However, 33 is not a round number with regard to 32. It should be noted that it is the one person missing from the list of Leah’s offspring that is missing from our list of 70; i.e., if Leah’s thirty-three were listed here, we would have 70. ¹³ Baba Batra ¹⁴ According to Talmudic tradition the Israelites were in Egypt for 210 years (Seder Olam ¹⁵ When the Torah doesn’t see fit to note that Jochebed was 130 when she brought a child into the world. ¹⁶ If this is really so, why wasn’t Jochebed’s longevity mentioned in Scripture? ¹⁷ Cf. Baba Batra ¹⁸ It is therefore not binding and cannot be offered as proof. ¹⁹ We thus see that Jacob is included in the number of those who came to Egypt. ²⁰ Jacob obviously cannot be included in those that came out of his loins. ²¹ Yet Scripture lists them among those who came to Egypt (v. 20). ²² So Vat. Ebr ²³ Nefesh ²⁴ The reference is either to verse 27 (Krinsky) or both verse 27 and Deut. 10:22 (Cherez), or possibly only to Deut. 10:22. ²⁵ All the souls of the house of Jacob, that came into Egypt, were three score and ten ²⁶ Hence it is unlikely that he would not be included in the number of those that went down (Weiser).

AND JOSEPH MADE READY HIS CHARIOT. Joseph commanded it ready.²⁷ So Solomon built the house, and finished it (I Kings 6:14),²⁸ is similar.

footnotes: ²⁷ A man of Joseph’s position would not personally make ready his chariot, hence I.E.’s comment. However, since he commanded that his chariot be made ready it is as if he himself did it. ²⁸ Solomon obviously did not personally build the house. He ordered it built.

FOR EVERY SHEPHERD IS AN ABOMINATION UNTO THE EGYPTIANS. This verse shows that in those days the Egyptians did not eat meat and they did not permit anyone to slaughter sheep. This is still the custom among the Indians. The Egyptians considered shepherds an abomination because they drank milk.²⁹ The people of India until this very day do not eat or drink anything derived from a living creature.

footnotes: ²⁹ Although the Egyptians allowed shepherds in their country, they did not allow them to slaughter sheep. However, they permitted them to drink milk, although they detested them for it.