Few in number, as it says: It is possible that this is a continuation of the previous statement in which it expounds on the connection between, “He sojourned there,” and “And he went down to Egypt,” teaching us that they, “Did not go down to Egypt to settle.” Because Scripture is true, it means that Jacob and his household went down to Egypt to sojourn there for a short time and then it states while in Egypt, they were “Few in number.” The reason for their descent to Egypt was not because they were few in number, since it then would have said, “They went down to Egypt few in number…” In answer to this, we say, “Few in number” as Scripture states, “With seventy souls our ancestors went down to Egypt.” It is necessary to say that the intention of the vese is to say that they went down few in number but the verse was changed so that we wouldn’t presume that they went there to settle but only to sojourn and thereby fulfill God’s decree, “For your offspring shall be strangers.” In this way the descent to Egypt is included in the number of years of the decree; from the time of going down to Egypt.

It is also possible that the verse, “He went down to Egypt and sojourned theory were few in number” hints at what the students of Ari taught. The exile to Egypt was because they were the offspring of Adam who separated from Eve for 130 years, he discharged seed (creating demons).⁶⁵ This is why it states that the Shechinah went down to Egypt with them. מצרי"מה, Mitzrayiama, has the same gematria, the same numerical value, as Shechinah. Thus, they went down for the sake of the small number (mitei miat), an allusion to the sparks of impurity in the souls of Adam created by discharging seed. That is why it uses the language mitei, from the word metim, dead, and it decreed 430 years of exile which has the same gematria as nefesh, soul. Afterwards, through exile and subjugation, the good was clarified and the souls were repaired. There were 600,000 Israelites who went forth, as Scripture states, “And they became a great and mighty and populous nation,” because they were repaired there and they became a great and mighty nation.

footnotes: ⁶⁵ See above page 18.