B"H

Friday, Tevet 6, 5776 / December 18, 2015 – HAKHEL YEAR

Questions & Answers on this week’s Parsha, Vayigash, in which we read how Yaakov and his family moved to Egypt. It was a reunificationof the family after being separated from Joseph for 22 years.

Q.  How old was Yaakov when he came to Egypt?

A.  Yaakov was 130years old.

Q.  In last week’s Parsha we read about Pharaoh’s dreams, which Joseph interpreted that seven years of full and then seven years of famine will come to Egypt. Yaakov and his family moved to Egypt as a result of the famine.  In which year of the famine did Yaakov move to Egypt?

A.  During the secondyearof the famine. However, the famine didn’t last for seven years. When Yaakov and his family came to Egypt, G-d stopped the famine in honor of Yaakov.

Q.  How long did Yaakov end up living in Egypt?

A.  Yaakov lived there for seventeen years. But his descendants stayed in Egypt for 210 years.

Q.  How many years were Yaakov and Joseph together, excluding the years of separation?

A.Thirty four years. The first seventeen years of Joseph’s live and the last seventeen years of Yaakov’s life, after Yaakov came to Egypt and they were together again.

Q.  The number of descendants who moved with Yaakov to Egypt (including Joseph and his children) were seventy. How many of them were men and how many women?

A.  Sixty seven men and three women. The three women were: Yaakov’s daughter, Dina; his granddaughter, Serach (daughter of Asher); his granddaughter Yocheved, who later gave birth to Moshe.  Yocheved was born as they entered Egypt.

Q.  Which of Yaakov’s sons had the most children and who had the least?

A.   His youngest son, Binyamin (Benjamin) had ten sons. His son, Dan, had only one son.

Q.  The Torah tells us that when Joseph met his father, after so many years of separation, “He fell on his father and wept on his neck profusely.”  What did Yaakov do at that time?      

A.  Our sages say that Yaakov utilized that wonderful moment in which he was bursting with emotions of joy and love, to read the “Shema” – affirming his love and gratitude to G-d. It was a moment of a lifetime and Yaakov dedicated it to G-d.

SHABBAT SHALOM

Montreal candle lighting time: 3:54 / Shabbat ends: 5:03