בראשית, פרק מ״ו, פסוק כ״ו

The journey of Jacob's family down to Egypt marks a profound historical seam, the exact moment a private family begins its transformation into a nation. As they travel, they are captured in a state of transit, actively leaving the land of Canaan but not yet fully arrived in their exile [רש"י, מנחת שי, נתינה לגר].

Despite numbering seventy individuals, the entire family is described as a single, unified soul. This stands in sharp contrast to the family of Esau, which consisted of only six people yet was referred to in the plural because they pursued divergent paths and worshipped multiple deities. Jacob's family, however, is bound together by a shared belief and devotion to the one God [רש"י, רש"ר הירש]. This shared identity also reflects a deep internal healing. The bitter jealousy that once divided the brothers has completely dissolved. They march toward Egypt united with a single heart, perfectly matched by Joseph, who harbors no lingering resentment toward them. Together, they form one cohesive body [כלי יקר].

The precise tally of the direct biological offspring participating in this journey is sixty-six. The primary approach among commentators is that this number reflects the physical travelers, requiring the subtraction of four specific individuals to reach the complete total of seventy. Jacob himself is excluded, as he cannot be counted as his own descendant, along with Joseph and his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, who were already living in Egypt and not part of the traveling caravan [רשב"ם, רלב"ג, חזקוני]. Another perspective suggests that the final figure completing the seventy is Jochebed. According to tradition, she was conceived during the journey but born precisely between the city walls as they entered Egypt, leaving her out of the initial count of sixty-six who departed Canaan [רש"י, רבנו בחיי, חזקוני].

These biological descendants explicitly include daughters, a detail that establishes an important legal principle regarding inheritance: when a person leaves an estate to their offspring, daughters are inherently included, just as Dinah is counted among Jacob's direct lineage [תורה תמימה]. The wives of Jacob's sons, however, are specifically excluded from this count. According to the tradition that twin sisters were born with each of the tribal patriarchs and later married them, these original wives must have passed away before the descent into Egypt. Consequently, the wives excluded from the tally are foreign women the brothers married later, who were not of Jacob's own seed [רש"י, שפתי חכמים, גור אריה, דברי דוד, יריעות שלמה]. Alternatively, some suggest that Jacob did indeed have many other daughters, but their names are omitted. In this view, only women who played a uniquely significant historical role in the establishment of the Israelite nation, such as Dinah, Serah, and Jochebed, are recorded for posterity [ברכת אשר].