by Sarah Kaufman '25 We’re used to seeing long lists of names in Bereishit, most typically in the early genealogies of humanity. If we’re honest, these are often the parts we skip or skim. In Parshat Vayigash, we find another list, this time of Yaakov’s family who went to Egypt. After mentioning each family member by name, it concludes with a typical summary line, explaining that 70 people in total went down to Egypt with Yaakov (Bereishit 46:27).
Yet many commentators point out that if you take the time to count each individual listed, the sum is 69, not 70. So many different explanations are given that it is evident these medieval commentators cannot find a satisfying reason for the discrepancy. Rashi (Bereishit 46:15) cites the midrash that the 70th person is Yocheved in the womb. She was conceived in Eretz Yisrael but not born until the people arrived in Egypt. Ibn Ezra (Bereishit 46:27) says the count of 70 includes Yaakov himself, that he is part of his own household.
Yet the Da'at Zekenim, a compilation of commentary by the Baalei Tosafot, offers a different direction, based on the episode that precedes this list of names. God has revealed Himself to Yaakov, advising him not to fear his descent to Egypt. God promises that He will be with Yaakov the whole way: “I Myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I Myself will also bring you up; and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes” (Bereishit 46:4). Based on this promise, the Baalei Tosafot say that God Himself must be included in the count of 70.
We find precedent for this interpretation in the Mechilta d’Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai (3:1):
R. Yehoshua would say: “Come and see the extent of God’s compassion and merits for Israel. When they descended to Egypt, the Shekhina went with them, as it says ‘I Myself will go down with you to Egypt (Bereishit 46:4).’ When they ascended, the Shekhina ascended with them, as it says, ‘I Myself will also bring you back.’”
What does it mean for God to join us in exile?
R. Yehoshua seems to imply something physical or spatial, that the Shekhina itself travels with us in exile. Though Maimonideans may object to this anthropomorphism, the idea of God dwelling with us on earth is not foreign to Tanakh. Unlike pagan gods that tended to be local or provincial and resided in one place, God is everywhere and unbound. He is with Am Yisrael wherever we are, rather than stuck in a particular location.
Perhaps this points to one of Yaakov’s fears, which Hashem needed to assuage. Yitzchak never left Eretz Yisrael, and Yaakov was worried about whether God would still be with him—and the rest of Am Yisrael—in an outside land. Ramban (Bereishit 46:2) connects this concern with God’s use of the name Yaakov, rather than Yisrael:'
AND HE SAID, JACOB, JACOB. After God had told him, Thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name, it would be proper that He call him (Jacob) by this glorious name (Israel), and so he is indeed mentioned three times in this section. However, He called him Jacob in order to hint that now he will not contend with God and men and prevail, [as the name Israel indicates], but he will be in a house of bondage until He will also bring him up again, since the exile now begins with him…
Yaakov’s fears for himself and his children stem from his understanding that this descent into Egypt will begin their exile and subsequent slavery. He doesn’t know what the future will bring—not realizing that he himself will die in exile, or that his bones will be buried in the Land when his sons return them there. All he knows is that his descendents will be slaves, based on God’s revelation to Avraham in Brit Bein HaBetarim (Bereishit 15).
The Or HaChaim (Bereishit 46:4) argues that Hashem’s promise of accompanying Yaakov to Egypt and back should be understood figuratively. In this interpretation, God is saying that He shares in the suffering of B’nei Yisrael. God demonstrated His concern when appearing to Moshe in the burning bush, saying “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows” (Shemot 3:7). Normally a thornbush would be an unfit place for God to dwell. Instead, His chosen site of revelation showed that as long as Am Yisrael were in distress in Egypt, God would meet them where they were, in a lowly, painful place.
Whether God’s joining us in exile is literal or figurative ultimately isn’t what’s most important. The point is that even in the darkest of times and places, God wants us to know He is present with us. God shares in our suffering, as well as our joys. This essential solidarity, of Hashem with B’nei Yisrael, is why God completes the count of 70 who go down to Egypt.
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Sarah Kaufman is a Core Semikha student at Yeshivat Maharat. She has interned at the Abraham Joshua Heschel School teaching middle schoolers and at Ohr Torah Stone’s Jewish Learning Center of New York, teaching fundamentals of Judaism to potential converts with Rabbi David Kalb. Sarah previously taught at the Genesis Program at Brandeis University and the Tikvah Fund. Sarah also served as the Maharat Intern at Beth Sholom Talmud Torah in Potomac, MD. She is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and spent a year at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. She lives in Manhattan with her husband and enjoys baking challah and browsing bookstores.