Komentarz do Rodzaju 46:5

וישאו בני ישראל, the reason why Yaakov’s children are referred to here for the first time as בני ישראל, “the Children of Israel, and not as “the sons of Yaakov,” is that from this moment on their task had become a twofold one, to do that on account of which their father had been accorded his additional name, title, “Israel.” From now on they faced challenges in their conduct vis-à-vis G’d as well as challenges in their conduct vis a vis their environment. This resulted from their becoming strangers in a land in which they had not been born and raised.

Yaakov rose. He forced himself to get up and go. The move was difficult for him because he knew that it marked the beginning of the exile.

וישאו בני ישראל את יעקב אביהם, “The children of Israel carried their father.” This was the occasion when they repaid him for the time at the Yabbok when he had carried all of them across the river. (Genesis 32,25)