All the souls (the Hebrew
is singular) who came with Jacob into Egypt, who were his direct descendants,
besides Jacob’s sons' wives, all the souls were sixty-six. Genesis 46:26
I found in vaYikra
Rabba [4:6]: Esau’s family had six souls and the verse [Genesis 36:6] calls
them “the souls (plural) of his household,” since they worshipped different
deities, while Jacob’s seventy souls are called a single soul, since they all
worshipped one God. Rashi
According
to the Midrash which Rashi quotes, the factor which united the children
of Israel as a single soul was the fact that they all worshipped a single God.
Zohar
[Leviticus, Parashat Emor 83b] expounds that Israelites are considered
as one only when they are within the Land. Israel can truly be considered “one
nation” [II Samuel 7:23] only when in its own Land. Based upon this, the Land
of Israel is also a factor in relating to the children of Israel as a single
soul.
Indeed,
the two factors which contribute to Israel’s unity, worshipping the same God
and the Land itself, are inter-connected, as our Sages taught:
One who lives outside
Israel is considered as one who has no God, and all who dwell within the Land
are considered as having a God.
Babylonian Talmud, Ketubot
110b
No comments:
Post a Comment