Commento su Genesi 46:26

כל הנפש הבאה ליעקב EVERY SOUL THAT WAS COMING WITH JACOB — every soul that left Canaan to go to Egypt The word הבאה, here, is not a perfect tense, but a participle with a relative present sense — just as (Ester 2:4) “In the evening she (באה) was coming” and (Genesis 29:7) “and, behold, Rachel his daughter is coming (באה)” and therefore the accent is on the last syllable, on the א, because when they left, coming from the land of Canaan, they were only sixty-six. But at the second mention of this word (Genesis 46:27) — “every soul of the house of Jacob, which came (הבאה) into Egypt were seventy” — it is a perfect tense and therefore it is accented on the last but one syllable, on the ב. The reason is, that when they came there, they were seventy, for they found Joseph and his two sons there, and Jochebed was added to their number “between the walls”. According to the view of the Rabbi (i. e. R. Jehudah, cf. Genesis Rabbah 84) who stated that with each of Jacob’s sons a twin-sister was born, we must say that these died before they (Jacob and his family) went down to Egypt, because they are not enumerated here. In Vayikra Rabbah 4:6 I found the following: When he left Canaan (cf. Genesis 36:6) Esau’s family consisted of only six (himself and his five sons), and Scripture calls them “the souls of his house” (in the plural) and this is because they worshipped many gods (each serving a different god and having as it were, a different soul or religious feeling). But the family of Jacob when he came to Egypt consisted of seventy and Scripture calls them “soul”, in the singular, because they all served One God.

(1) [ALL THE PERSONS WHO CAME WITH YA'AKOV TO EGYPT] HIS OWN ISSUE. Who are coming to Egypt.

כל הנפש הבאה, we are told about number of the members of Yaakov’s household appearing with the masculine ending twice, such as the number fourteen in verse 22, and the number seven in verse 25. On the other hand, in verse 15 the Torah uses the feminine ending for the number 33 (שלושים ושלוש) and in verse 18 it uses the feminine ending for the number 16 (שש עשרה). The reason for this apparent anomaly is that the noun נפש mentioned in verse 26, for instance is feminine, hence the number associated with that noun has to be in the feminine mode also. The word בני being in the masculine mode, however, determines that the adjective or attribute accompanying it be in the same mode, i.e. masculine.

יוצאי ירכו מלבד נשי בני יעקב, “his biological descendants aside from the wives of Yaakov’s sons.” According to our sages in Bereshit Rabbah 84,19 where Rabbi Yehudah claimed that a twin sister was born to each one of Yaakov’s sons, the words יוצאי ירכו here are an allusion to the fact that the wives of the sons of Yaakov were each one of those twins. What would be the point of the Torah writing: “apart from the wives of the sons of Yaakov,” if the reference had been to Canaanite women whom the brothers married? Who would ever have thought that Canaanites would have been included in the count? The Torah had to mention that these women were not included in the count of seventy precisely because they were descendants of Yaakov. When the Torah here concludes with the words כל נפש ששים ושש, “all the persons sixty-six,” this is because only sixty-six were included in the ones previously described as הבאים מצרימה, arriving in Egypt. Joseph and his two sons as well as Yocheved (who did not make the journey as she had not been born yet) made up the missing four from the number seventy. The Torah testified in Numbers 26,59 that “Yocheved was born for Levi in Egypt.”

We must assume that they died... Because otherwise, why were they not counted among the other children? Thus it says, “Not counting the wives [of Yaakov’s sons],” to convey that they had died, and these wives [mentioned here] were of foreign origin and did not come out of Yaakov’s loins. Scripture itself explains this. (Maharshal)

כל נפש. Esaus Haus zählte nur sechs Seelen, und es heißt von ihm כל נפשות ביתו bemerkt ein Wort in ,(1. B. M. 36, 6) מ"ר, Jakobs Haus zählt siebenzig Seelen und sie heißen zusammen nur ein כל הנפש לבית יעקב :נפש! Außerhalb des jüdischen Berufes schlägt oft jeder Sohn seinen eigenen Weg ein. Wo aber in Wahrheit und Treue jüdischer Sinn erhalten ist, da mögen es siebenzig sein, und es waltet doch in allen ein Geist und ein Sinn.

כל נפש ששים ושש, “The combined total of souls were 66.” They were made up of 33 children of Leah including Dina, Chetzron, Chamul and Yocheved who was born at the border of Egypt, included. Zilpah had a total of 16, including Chever and Malkiel. Rachel’s descendants at that time were 14, and Bilhah’s were seven. You have to deduct Joseph and his two sons as well as Yocheved, [who did not descend. Ed.], as explained by Rashi. Compare verse 46 according to which the number is made up of people having left the land of Canaan. The words: יוצאי ירך יעקב, “biological offspring of Yaakov,” have been added to tell us that the wives of both Yaakov and his sons were not included. [Our author may have added these words as otherwise we would have to assume that both Bilhah and Zilpah had already died. Ed.]

(2) ALL THESE PERSONS NUMBERED 66. For Ya'akov, who was among the count of 33 relating to Leah, is not among "his own issue," for "his own issue" were only 69. And this is what Moshe said (Deut. 10:22), "Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy persons in all, for Ya'akov and his descendants were 70.

Eisov had six souls... As it is written in 36:6: “Eisov took his wives... and all the souls of his household.” There must be an error in the text of Rashi, because Eisov had only five souls, yet Rashi, who cites the Midrash that says six. This requires further investigation.