Pensamiento judío sobre Génesis 46:26

Scriptural support for the proposition that God made this statement to the moon appears clear to me from the Midrashic passage⁴⁸Shmos Rabbah 15:27. cited previously⁴⁹P. 74 above. when quoting the author of the Akeidah, who uses the sun and the moon as metaphors for Esav and Yaakov. Extending this analogy, a unique interpretation can be given to Yosef’s dream. Yosef told his father and brothers that he dreamt that⁵⁰Bereishis 37:9. “the sun, the moon, and eleven stars are bowing down to me.” Yaakov appeared to reject the dream, questioning,⁵¹Ibid. 37:10. “Will I and your mother come…,” ostensibly because he thought that the sun referred to him and the moon to Yosef’s mother. However, according to the understanding of the passage in Chulin, the sun refers to Esav and to all the nations like him. Esav’s descendants and all these nations bowed down to Yosef when they came to him to purchase grain. Do not negate this interpretation because it includes all the nations that resemble Esav together with him, for these twins, Yaakov and Esav, represent all humanity, since there is no one distinct from all other men except Yaakov. All mankind aside from Yaakov are fundamentally the same – a single entity. True, at present, distinctions have arisen between nations. However, in earlier eras – and certainly, in the time of the Patriarchs – Esav can be understood as representing all the nations like him. Thus, in Yosef’s dream, the moon refers to Yaakov. According to this understanding, the prophecy in Yosef’s dream was fulfilled. Rashi⁵²See Rashi’s commentary to Bereishis 37:10. explains that the moon in Yosef’s dream refers to Bilhah. That is incorrect, for as Ramban states,⁵³See Ramban’s commentary to the above verse. Bilhah and Zilpah had already died. (Ramban derives this from the verse⁵⁴Bereishis 46:26. that describes the 70 individuals who descended to Egypt with Yaakov. That verse mentions the individuals who descended “in addition to the wives of Yaakov’s sons.” Since the verse explicitly mentions “the wives of Yaakov’s sons” but makes no mention of Yaakov’s wives, it implies that although the wives of Yaakov’s sons descended to Egypt, Yaakov’s wives did not.)⁵⁵Ramban is positing that Yaakov’s wives did not descend to Egypt with him because they were no longer alive. Nevertheless, the prophecy of Yosef’s dream was fulfilled because the moon in the dream refers to Yaakov and not Bilhah. True, Yaakov protested to Yosef, “Will I and your mother come….” However, that was only to calm Yosef’s brothers, to reduce their jealousy by intimating that the dream was untrue because Yosef’s mother had already died. In truth, however, Yaakov knew that the dream referred to Esav and himself. We thus have support from Yosef’s dream for the concept that Yaakov is identified with the moon.