Difference between revisions of "The Births and Relative Ages of Yaakov's Children/2"
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<p>Yaakov married Leah immediately upon starting working for Lavan, and thus Yaakov's first twelve children were born over the course of thirteen years. As a result, Shimon and Levi were about twenty at the time of the incident in Shechem, and there is additional time for Yehuda's descendants to sire their own offspring before descending to Egypt.</p> | <p>Yaakov married Leah immediately upon starting working for Lavan, and thus Yaakov's first twelve children were born over the course of thirteen years. As a result, Shimon and Levi were about twenty at the time of the incident in Shechem, and there is additional time for Yehuda's descendants to sire their own offspring before descending to Egypt.</p> | ||
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− | <multilink><a href="RalbagBereshit29P21" data-aht="source">Ralbag</a><a href="RalbagBereshit29P21" data-aht="source">Beiur Divrei HaParashah Bereshit 29:21</a><a href="RalbagBereshit38" data-aht="source">Beiur Divrei HaParashah End of Bereshit 38</a><a href="R. Levi b. Gershom (Ralbag, Gersonides)" data-aht="parshan">About R. Levi b. | + | <multilink><a href="RalbagBereshit29P21" data-aht="source">Ralbag</a><a href="RalbagBereshit29P21" data-aht="source">Beiur Divrei HaParashah Bereshit 29:21</a><a href="RalbagBereshit38" data-aht="source">Beiur Divrei HaParashah End of Bereshit 38</a><a href="R. Levi b. Gershom (Ralbag, Gersonides)" data-aht="parshan">About R. Levi b. Gershom</a></multilink> |
</mekorot> | </mekorot> | ||
<point><b>"מָלְאוּ יָמָי" and "מַלֵּא שְׁבֻעַ זֹאת"</b> – Ralbag explains that Yaakov requested that he be allowed to marry before beginning his first seven year stint,<fn>According to the standard calculation followed by Ralbag (which assumes that Yosef was born at the end of fourteen years), Yaakov was seventy-seven at that point. In the 1476 Mantua and 1547 Venice editions, Ralbag adds a second possibility that Yaakov was eighty ("או שמונים שנה") when he got married. [The round number of eighty ("וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה") might account for Yaakov saying "מָלְאוּ יָמָי".] However, Ralbag does not develop this option any further, and it is unclear if this text is Ralbag's own or results from a copyist's error. [There is some confusion between the various textual witnesses here; MS Paris 242 reads "יותר משבע וע' שנה" while MS Paris 243 reads "יותר מפ"ד שנה". The Venice edition may be a conflation.]</fn> and Lavan acquiesced.<fn>One of the difficulties with Ralbag's position is that it forces him to postulate that <a href="Bereshit29-18" data-aht="source">Bereshit 29:20</a> is out of order. Moreover, according to Ralbag, by the time Yaakov started working, he was already aware that his first seven years were going to be for Leah, and this does not fit the words "וַיַּעֲבֹד יַעֲקֹב בְּרָחֵל שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים". See <multilink><a href="AbarbanelBereshit29" data-aht="source">Abarbanel</a><a href="AbarbanelBereshit29" data-aht="source">Bereshit 29</a><a href="R. Yitzchak Abarbanel" data-aht="parshan">About R. Yitzchak Abarbanel</a></multilink> who contends that Ralbag's position jumbles the verses.<p>However, both of these difficulties can be somewhat mitigated if one adopts the variant possibility (see note above) that Yaakov got married in the middle of the first seven years, when he was eighty. For a detailed analysis of Ralbag's position and a survey of many of the other approaches, see R. Baruch Braner's <a href="http://www.ybm.org.il/hebrew/LessonArticle.aspx?item=2942">article</a>, "אחד עשר בנים ובת בשבע שנים – היאך".</p></fn> "מָלְאוּ יָמָי", according to this, means that Yaakov was already an old man.<fn>Ralbag points out that Yaakov says "מָלְאוּ יָמָי", rather than "מלאו ימי עבודתי". His interpretation of the phrase itself is similar to that found in Bereshit Rabbah and Rashi.</fn> Consequently, this position could have explained that "מַלֵּא שְׁבֻעַ זֹאת" refers to the completion of the first seven years of labor.<fn>This is, in fact, how <multilink><a href="RambanBereshit29-21" data-aht="source">Ramban</a><a href="RambanBereshit29-21" data-aht="source">Bereshit 29:21-27</a><a href="R. Moshe b. Nachman (Ramban, Nachmanides)" data-aht="parshan">About R. Moshe Nachmanides</a></multilink> interprets. However, according to Ramban, Yaakov married Leah only near the end of the first seven years. Also compare to the position of <multilink><a href="Josephus1-19-7" data-aht="source">Josephus</a><a href="Josephus1-19-7" data-aht="source">Antiquities 1:19:7</a><a href="Josephus" data-aht="parshan">About Josephus</a></multilink> cited above that the phrase refers to the completion of the second seven year set.</fn> However Ralbag opts to render it as referring to the seven days of nuptial festivities.</point> | <point><b>"מָלְאוּ יָמָי" and "מַלֵּא שְׁבֻעַ זֹאת"</b> – Ralbag explains that Yaakov requested that he be allowed to marry before beginning his first seven year stint,<fn>According to the standard calculation followed by Ralbag (which assumes that Yosef was born at the end of fourteen years), Yaakov was seventy-seven at that point. In the 1476 Mantua and 1547 Venice editions, Ralbag adds a second possibility that Yaakov was eighty ("או שמונים שנה") when he got married. [The round number of eighty ("וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה") might account for Yaakov saying "מָלְאוּ יָמָי".] However, Ralbag does not develop this option any further, and it is unclear if this text is Ralbag's own or results from a copyist's error. [There is some confusion between the various textual witnesses here; MS Paris 242 reads "יותר משבע וע' שנה" while MS Paris 243 reads "יותר מפ"ד שנה". The Venice edition may be a conflation.]</fn> and Lavan acquiesced.<fn>One of the difficulties with Ralbag's position is that it forces him to postulate that <a href="Bereshit29-18" data-aht="source">Bereshit 29:20</a> is out of order. Moreover, according to Ralbag, by the time Yaakov started working, he was already aware that his first seven years were going to be for Leah, and this does not fit the words "וַיַּעֲבֹד יַעֲקֹב בְּרָחֵל שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים". See <multilink><a href="AbarbanelBereshit29" data-aht="source">Abarbanel</a><a href="AbarbanelBereshit29" data-aht="source">Bereshit 29</a><a href="R. Yitzchak Abarbanel" data-aht="parshan">About R. Yitzchak Abarbanel</a></multilink> who contends that Ralbag's position jumbles the verses.<p>However, both of these difficulties can be somewhat mitigated if one adopts the variant possibility (see note above) that Yaakov got married in the middle of the first seven years, when he was eighty. For a detailed analysis of Ralbag's position and a survey of many of the other approaches, see R. Baruch Braner's <a href="http://www.ybm.org.il/hebrew/LessonArticle.aspx?item=2942">article</a>, "אחד עשר בנים ובת בשבע שנים – היאך".</p></fn> "מָלְאוּ יָמָי", according to this, means that Yaakov was already an old man.<fn>Ralbag points out that Yaakov says "מָלְאוּ יָמָי", rather than "מלאו ימי עבודתי". His interpretation of the phrase itself is similar to that found in Bereshit Rabbah and Rashi.</fn> Consequently, this position could have explained that "מַלֵּא שְׁבֻעַ זֹאת" refers to the completion of the first seven years of labor.<fn>This is, in fact, how <multilink><a href="RambanBereshit29-21" data-aht="source">Ramban</a><a href="RambanBereshit29-21" data-aht="source">Bereshit 29:21-27</a><a href="R. Moshe b. Nachman (Ramban, Nachmanides)" data-aht="parshan">About R. Moshe Nachmanides</a></multilink> interprets. However, according to Ramban, Yaakov married Leah only near the end of the first seven years. Also compare to the position of <multilink><a href="Josephus1-19-7" data-aht="source">Josephus</a><a href="Josephus1-19-7" data-aht="source">Antiquities 1:19:7</a><a href="Josephus" data-aht="parshan">About Josephus</a></multilink> cited above that the phrase refers to the completion of the second seven year set.</fn> However Ralbag opts to render it as referring to the seven days of nuptial festivities.</point> |
Version as of 17:42, 14 February 2015
The Births and Relative Ages of Yaakov's Children
Exegetical Approaches
Overview
In attempting to make sense of the various chronological issues relating to the the births and lives of Yaakov's children, commentators offer an array of possibilities. Interestingly, many of them are remarkably consistent in the methodologies they apply to resolve each of the issues.
A first approach, taken by many Midrashim, reads the text both literally and chronologically, and resolves all issues by positing that events were supernatural. This allows for seven month pregnancies, youngsters capable of massacring cities, and eight year old parents. Others take a more rationalist approach, preferring to resolve the problems by suggesting minor chronological changes in the order of the recorded events. They assert that some of Yaakov's wives' pregnancies overlapped, that Yaakov spent some years in Shechem before Dinah was raped, and that the story of Yehuda and Tamar occurred before the sale of Yosef. A final approach expands the time frame in which Yaakov's children were born, making Shimon, Levi, and Yehuda older during the subsequent events.
Premature & Precocious
The pregnancies for each and every one of Yaakov's children were extraordinarily short, and were thus able to fit within a seven year time span. Similarly, Yaakov's children reached physical and sexual maturity at supernaturally early ages, and this accounts for the very young ages of Shimon and Levi and Yehuda's descendants when they sired offspring in the subsequent stories.
Achronological Order
The Torah favors thematic order over chronological order and therefore presents the pregnancies and births as consecutive, even though they needed to overlap with each other to fit into the seven year time frame. Similarly, positing achronology resolves the difficulties in the later stories of Sefer Bereshit, with the story of Shimon and Levi in Shechem transpiring only many years after Yaakov returned from Lavan's home, and Yehuda's first marriage occurring several years before the sale of Yosef.
Expanded Time Frame
The births of Yaakov's first twelve children took place over a period of almost fourteen years, rather than seven. This approach subdivides over whether it is the starting line or end point which needs to be adjusted to gain the additional years.
Yaakov Married Earlier
Yaakov married Leah immediately upon starting working for Lavan, and thus Yaakov's first twelve children were born over the course of thirteen years. As a result, Shimon and Levi were about twenty at the time of the incident in Shechem, and there is additional time for Yehuda's descendants to sire their own offspring before descending to Egypt.
Yosef Born Later
Yosef was born only after the completion of Yaakov's first fourteen years working for Lavan, and the twelve children were born over a span of up to twelve years. The incident with Shechem happened only much later when Shimon and Levi were already twenty years old.