창세기 29:7의 인용 해설

Yaakov is introduced in the Torah as being “tam” and sitting in tents. The latter is traditionally understood to describe a studious and meditative character (Bereshit Rabba 63:10). The word tam generally conveys purity and innocence, as when it describes an unblemished offering (e.g., a keves tamim). Rashi elucidates the trait of being tam by contrasting it with Esav’s character: Whereas Esav wields an expertise in the ways of deceit, the words out of Yaakov’s mouth innocently convey his true feelings (Rashi on Bereshit 25:27). While such honesty is certainly admirable, in an imperfect world it can leave one most vulnerable. An amusing example of this is when Yaakov admonishes a group of ostensibly lazing shepherds for not working (Bereshit 29:7).⁷But see, for example, Rashi and Seforno as to the nature of Yaakov’s criticism. To put it into a modern-day context, envision a truck stop, where truck drivers are lazily stretching out their meal. In comes a yeshiva student asking the group why they don’t get back to work, since it is obvious they would not want to cheat their employers. Clearly, the student would require Divine protection to prevent him from making it onto the next morning’s obituary list.

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.