Ari Goldwag - Vayigash - Counting to Seventy

you're listening to the weekly paral podcast recorded with aam's never ending assistance in R Israel 5776 2015 this week's paraa is parash we have the completion of the story with ysf and his brothers we have the reconciliation between them and we have yakob Jacob being told the amazing news that his son who for 22 years he thought was dead was actually alive and was a leader over Egypt yakob ainu Jacob comes down to Egypt meets his son and in that process of yakob coming down the Torah tells us it gives us an enumeration counting of the all of the offspring of yobu of Jacob and as is the the way of the Torah as the Torah continues the Torah enumerates and counts the Jewish people consistently constantly and it's always interesting to try to understand what is the idea behind the counting what is the idea why does the Torah why does Hashem count the Jewish people give us the number why is the number so important but what I'd like to focus on specifically here in this week's para in this counting is the fact that we have something which is very difficult to understand the M talks about it the T tells us it gives us a count it it enumerates the children of yakob you of Jacob and tells us there were 66 there were 66 offspring of yob of Jacob and then the Torah gives us yose tells us that Joseph and his two sons masim were in Egypt so the Torah doesn't say it but it does come out to 69 and then the Torah says that this total 70 so the Torah says something which seems to be incorrect or inaccurate this is the verse it's in chapter 46 verse 27 the children of Y that were born him in Egypt were two all of The Offspring of Jacob who were coming down to Egypt who or including ysf who was there in Egypt are 70 so the major struggles to try to understand who was number 70 who was number 70 how do we get to 70 we got from 66 to 69 and then we got to 70 somehow the number 70 is inaccurate so the Mish wants on the same where that number comes from so now the mes gives us a few different explanations as to who was number 70 the first explanation is is the most famous one I believe Rashi brings it down here's the me it says ins quotes the verses said the name of have you ever seen in your life a person who gives his 66 cups then he gives him another three and he counts them as 70 he says I've given you 70 cups it's very strange he's asking this question with an analogy which we also need to understand what's the choice of this analogy why did he choose cups why didn't he choose barrels why didn't he choose pieces of pizza I don't know why did he choose cops this is interesting maybe we'll try to understand that but he says have you ever seen such a thing who is number 70 which is not counted which we don't see who's the 70th cup so to speak she completed the number the number 70 of the Jewish people coming down to Egypt so that's the first shot that's the first understanding so the question becomes if indeed y was there on the way down why wasn't she counted why was she only counted in a hint way why wasn't she outrightly mentioned so the explains this in the name of says was conceived in the land of Canan in in the land of Israel and but she she was born in Egypt so the reason that she wasn't enumerated in those that were coming down to Egypt is because she was just conceived and she was just a fetus on the way way down but she was indeed born as they came to Egypt so the Torah says that there were 70 even though it doesn't explicitly State who the 70th person was now it's important to still ask why indeed does the Torah not mention her why does the Torah leave her name out she was born already at the time that they came there that they got there what is the lesson why is the Torah telling us this at this point as the Jewish people come down to Egypt what is the deeper idea that's being taught here so the Mish continues and tells us a few other possibilities as to who is this mystery 70th person who is not counted but is included in the count there are those who say that the number 70 even though it's speaking about the or The Offspring of yov but there are those who say that the 70th person who's being enumerated as The Offspring of Yakov was Yakov himself was Jacob himself self this also needs explanation what is the idea here what does it mean that yakob is included in his offspring the next possible explanation of the is even harder to understand there are those who say that God himself was the number 70 so to speak as the maam explained because Hashem said that I'm going to come down with you down into Egypt so Hashem himself as it were is the 70th person or the 70th as aspect here also needs explanation and in explanation of this idea the tells us says that to understand what does it mean that God himself is the 70th so we have an analogy to two Legions of the king there two different types of Legions one's a stronger Legion one's a weaker Legion one has more people one has less people that the legions and I'm going to come back to this idea we need to understand this analogy I think it's very powerful and perhaps it gives us a depth of what is going on here but for a moment just hear the musle the analogy hear the question and then we're going to come back to this when you have these Legions so what they would do is they would set up the legions that each Legion would have a certain number let's say this Legion would have a thousand people a thousand soldiers this Legion would have 500 soldiers however what they would do is when they would count out the people they would actually make the legion That was supposed to have a, 999 they would make the legion That was supposed to have 500 only 499 and this way when the king would come the king himself would be the completion of the Legion so that the 999 plus the king when the king would come to lead his army the king would be the completion of each of the legions so that it he would bring the number to a thousand he would bring the number to 500 they would specifically make the number missing one so so that the king himself would be leading and be a part of each of the legions clearly this needs explanation but somehow this analogy will help us understand this understand the idea here on a deeper level we'll see soon now the M gives us another explanation who was the missing 70th there are those who say that who was the 70th it was the son of Dan Dan had one son his name was kushim he was deaf that's why he was called kushim because he was missing one of his senses the word K means senses so he was the one who completed the 70th aspect here he was the number 70 and in explanation which also needs an explanation but in explanation the ysf says that even though he was counted previously we had his if you look at the names over here the the name kushan already appeared we already counted him he was one of the 66 nevertheless he's he was so he was so significant that he's counted twice that's the explanation of the AC which of course needs explanation CU what does that mean he's so he's counted twice what does I mean you also have Yehuda why isn't Yehuda as why wasn't he counted twice you have I mean you have so many people all of the children The Offspring of yob of Jacob were so significant maybe ysf should be counted twice what's the idea why is counted twice what's the idea that's what's what's the depth of this explanation of the it's also very interesting how the M continues in talking about and it gives us something which is also quandry that also needs explanation but also holds the key to what's going on with the teaching of this in the Torah of they found that there was an extra line there it said the son of Dan Wasim what's the idea meaning R may had had scrolled into his saf Torah that who is this 70th person it's it's I'm sorry so somehow there's an explanation for this in that which she says in the verse the verse in sh B in 2 Samuel 24:6 refers to the place that Dan lived as an area ofi which means new also the word can mean a month and Etc and then the says keeps referring to the place that Dan lived as the place of the Moon the place of the of the new moon of the of the month what is the idea that Dan is referred to as the as the new moon it's very deep it's very powerful it was corresponding in a measure corresponding to a measure Don he came in in the shadows to his father Don he had one child he looked around all of the other tribes had multiple children he was the only one with only one son and who is his son his son was in the dark his son was in the shadows so to speak he wasn't able to hear he was missing that that capacity so he came in there in the shadows Miss and what was yov what did yov say yov gave him a blessing and that blessing the way that it manifested was that the tribe of Dan was very great even though they start off with only one person they had many many people in the in the shet they had the the mag refers to it as 70,000 but the numbers are actually in the 60s it just rounded off this in contrast to Benjamin Benjamin had 10 children nevertheless when the Torah describes how many he had it talks about it in terms of 40,000 which is really also a rounding off it was in the 30s sometimes it was in the 40s but the point is that Benyamin started off with what seemed to be much more Dan started off with what with what seemed to be much less and nevertheless Don was blessed with a reway with an because of the fact that he started off with less because of the fact that there seemed to be a diminishment which clearly has to do with the idea of thees of the new moon of the of the Moon being diminished and then there being a rebirth the cycle but the blessing came because of the fact that there was diminishment in Dan in his children the number of his children and even in the child himself so that led to Greater blessings so because Dan is somebody who represents blessings in diminishment when there's a a number missing that number is Dan it's ban and he's the completion so we you know we're starting to get a picture here I'm saying it almost in riddles but we're trying to understand what is the idea here what is this measure saying what what does it mean that done because he's he's missing something because he's less therefore he's more and there's blessings and there's greatness and that's the number 70 what is the idea here that's being taught by this medish so I want to just share the final explanation of the medish as to who the 70th person was that is not counted but is counted and the M says another thing similar to there are those who say it was sah the daughter ofer who completed the number who was counted actually as the at says she was counted twice even though she was mentioned earlier in the count of 66 she's also counted doubly as he says because she was very she was very significant she's considered like too why because she was a very a righteous individual she was very wise and the M goes on to quote that we have actually that saser is somebody who is referred to in tanak as the completer she's the completer we're looking for somebody who completes she's the completer how do we know that because the fact is that sarak BHA was still alive hundreds of years later and she's mentioned in tanak this is also in B in 2 Samuel 20: 16 and 17 it speaks about a wise woman there's this wise woman in the city who as the me says is actually referring to she was still alive and she has this whole conversation yav came because he wanted to get a certain person who was who had done certain things wrong and he wanted to kill that person but he came and he was making a Siege on the entire city so this wise woman who is actually s comes out and she asked asks him some questions the verse tells us that she says him are you yav are you this person who's coming to try to destroy the city when you're looking for one person he says yes and then she continues the conversation and says you might be but you're not doing the right thing you're not doing what the Torah says do you not know what it says in the Torah that when you come to a city the first thing you're supposed to do is call out for peace so he hears these questions from this wise woman and she said and he says to he says who are you and she says I am the one who completes the the faith of Israel says the what does she mean I'm the one who completed the number of the Jewish people in Egypt I was the one when when M Moses is about to leave Egypt and he doesn't know where ysep was buried he doesn't know where the bones of Joseph are which the Jewish people had promised Joseph that they're going to take his bones away she knew she had been there when when they came in she knew where yoseph had been buried she was able to tell this to Moshe so she's the one who's the completer she was the one who allowed the Jewish people to be able to leave Egypt and so she was the one who's the completer here as well according to this opinion in the Mish now we need to understand again what is the Mish saying what is the idea who is s what would it mean that she be counted twice because of the fact that she's so wise what does it mean that she's the completer what is the idea of this completer what is the m of Saker what is the concept behind her how do all of these different explanations of the medish what is the theme that runs through each of them which we could say would explain how it could be that they're not even really truly in an argument these different opinions but there's a theme that runs through all of these ideas all of these possibilities which is the underlying concept behind the missing number 70 and the completion when you only have one missing there's a completion that gets you to 70 what is the underlying theme here now if we look back at all of these different M if we look back at each of the different explanations there is a hint to the concept the underlying concept which is in each of them but we're going to start with s we're going to work in Reverse we're going to start with sah and we'll see that her idea her concept is this aspect of Haslam of completion and the way that she completes things is in a very specific way the mes tells us that earlier in the par that when it came to telling yob when it came to telling Jacob that ysep was still alive so they were afraid the the brothers were afraid to tell him they were afraid that he would have a heart attack that he would be so he would be so excited he would he wouldn't be able to handle the news what did they do so this is a it's in chapter 45: 26 they said to S the daughter of tell our father you know how to do it you tell our father that ysf is still alive and he's in Egypt so what did she do what was her approach she waited until he was praying and she said it in a questioning way she said is Joseph in Egypt did he have these is it true Did did you hear the news she she spoke as if she was talking to somebody else in a questioning way did you hear that Joseph is in Egypt he's alive he has two children manim pugly Bo the response of yob was that his heart closed he was in the middle of praying his first response was it can't be true Klim once he completed his prayer what happened he saw the he saw these wagons which had been sent he was able to receive the news because of the way that sarak had said it what was special about sarak what was her ability what was unique about her was that she was able to teach something with a question she was able to give over information in such a way that it would be received not by forcing the information down the person's throat but rather asking it in a question in this medish in theuk we read we read that when it came to yav she also she still had that approach she asked him are you yav everybody knew who yav was he was famous he was the Sarat he was the the the head of the army everybody knew who he was he was famous she said are you yav is is it true doesn't the Torah say that when you come to a city to lay Siege to it you're supposed to First Call out in peace and and she and it's very interesting because he responds and says who are you and then she says I'm the completer I'm the completer I'm able to complete things because I know how to ask I know how to take an approach where the completion the the bringing to the next stage happens through a question through something that's missing by asking a question when I ask a question I'm saying there's something missing then the person on their own can figure out what's missing when when Sarah said to Yakov is it true yobu is it true that he's still alive and and amazingly he was standing in prayer which is also this idea of lack of completion if I'm praying to God I'm asking God for something I'm saying I'm missing something there there he was standing in a state of being ready to receive in the state of missing something and she gives over the information in a way of something's missing she's the one who completes she's the one who represents the aspect of you have 69 people there's something missing but there's a completion which is a 70 let's look back now at Dan we look at Don ban his son is missing he can't he can't hear anything it's only one child he's missing he doesn't have a true doesn't have 10 children like bam like Benjamin there something seems to be missing but that's the aspect of the 70th which is missing something and there's a completion that comes as a result of that he's Mis he's blessed and even though the numbers look like they're in the 60s the 62,000 63,000 it doesn't matter it's still considered 70,000 the number 70 is the completion the number seven is the completion I noticed that if you look at the at the at this the account of the seven days of creation so each dayem says the first day it never says it was evening and it was morning it doesn't say that about the seventh the seventh is mentioned it's mentioned that hasem blessed the seventh day but it doesn't talk about the seventh in and of itself the seventh is something which is a completion which isn't counted it's not enumerated and and that's the 70 the seven and that's the 70 as well that's the 70,000 and that's this idea here so we see it in Kush ban as well he's not able to hear he's missing something but he is the completion he's only one but the very place where something is missing is where the completion is the moon it's something which keeps going into missing like Hashem says to the moon during the seven days of creation hasem says you want to know how to be a king you want to know how to Reign you have to make yourself limited you have to diminish yourself and that's the aspect of Dan he's referred to as the the the place where he lives is the place ofes of of the new moon of the of the of the Moon that's this aspect and when we look at the mush amazing thing we look at the mush the mush is beautiful 999 you have a legion of 999 people it's a thousand people no there's only 999 why because it's a recognition of the fact that who completes this who's the true leader who is this Legion for it's for the king it's for a king when I diminish myself when I diminish who I believe I am when I diminish myself that's where the 70th aspect comes in and that's AES what does it mean that the me Sayes is the masim god is the one who completes the 70th when there's an aspect of diminishment that's where Hashem comes in that's where God is is completing everything and it becomes apparent when I don't count when I don't count that 70th that's where it becomes apparent that Hashem is there completing it bringing in that completion bringing in that completed aspect and that's yakob we're talking about his children we're talking about but of course yakob is Manifest in all of his children so when we speak about him and we don't count him we are counting him yakob is the completion of the 70 because really he is Manifest he brings together all of the Kos all of the different powers all the different aspects that need to be manifest in the world through his children he completes them so he is the 70th aspect which is not counted but is counted and then finally we come back to the first one which is mentioned which is Y which is an unbelievable idea Y is look at her name her name is which is a reference the the one who gives honor to God who is y she was the mother of Moshe of Aon of Miriam the leaders of the Jewish people who would bring them out who would bring them to the next stage of completion bringing them to become a nation a complete Nation but everything that they have was not there consistently is talking about the fact that he's nothing nothing he's quiet Miriam and is the is the deepest level of of one who completely Praises Hashem she sings to God with a and and even the praise itself she drowns out so to speak is the the the completion of the 70 because she is somebody who's not there and she is there she's in a she's a fetus she's not completely there and she is there she's the one who completes it and so we have this unbelievable idea which is the depth of the completion of the concept where we are we are counting and we're not counting and Hashem is teaching us as the Jewish people come down to Egypt that there's a number we count because the Jewish people are going to more to begin to to manifest God in the world and the secret to that manifestation the completion of the manifestation is in the limitation the recognition that I can't do it I can't do without Hashem I am here only to manifest Hashem and to the degree that I that I minimize myself to the degree that I recognize that there's a question to ask did that that I'm missing something as Don had it that that I'm here to manifest Hashem and and that I'm nothing on my own I'm really just the manifestation of yob of something greater than me or that I'm y I'm not here for myself I'm here to bring honor to God and even the fact that I'm here I'm just in a fetus form in a fetal form to the degree that I recognize that so then I will indeed manifest Hashem in the world and I will complete I will be the as Sak was as all of these individuals were I will be the haslama the completion of bringing a revelation of Hashem into the world so I bless you and please bless me back that Hashem should help us to internalize this idea help us to to understand the depth of of the idea and that we should be able to Manifest this idea in our lives in all of our relationships as we continue in our service of hem in our growth inm thank you so much for listening have a wonderful shabas this podcast was made possible through the gracious donations of listeners like you for more podcasts like this please visit www.wag.com or search on iTunes Ari goldwag [Music]