parsha of the week: rabbi avi billet

How important are the ages of Biblical heros?

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One of the more challenging fact-finding questions we encounter every year is “how old are the Biblical heroes in the tales which are shared with us?” In some cases the Torah tells us, removing all doubt. We know Avraham was 75 at when he came to Canaan, 86 when Yishmael was born, 99 when he had his bris, 100 when Yitzchak was born, and 175 at his death.

Midrashic viewpoints differ on Avraham’s age was when he discovered G-d — I’ve seen 20-days, 3, 13, 40, 48 and 50 years —as legitimate options. Clearly only one of these can be correct.

Sarah’s age is told to us when she gives birth (90) and when she dies (127), but as she and her husband were ten years apart, we know her age at the stages outlined in his life.

Yitzchak was 40 when he married, 60 when his sons were born, and 180 when he died. We infer from other hints in the text (Rashi explains all this in 35:29, based on Talmud Megilah 17a) how old Yitzchak was when he blessed his sons (123), as well as other fun facts. The age of Rivkah is one of the more fun things I’ve ever written about in this column — I’ve seen 3 and 13 to 15 as her age at the time she met Yitzchak.

As Yaakov was 60 years younger than his father, and because we know his age when he arrives in Egypt (130), as well as how old Yosef was at that time (39), we work backwards to figure out how old Yaakov was when Yosef was born (91), and therefore how old he was when he married Rachel (84), and how old he was when he started working to marry Lavan’s daughter(s) (77). Since Yitzchak blessed him when he was 63 — and at that time he was instructed to go to Lavan’s house to take Lavan’s daughter as a wife (28:2) — there is a discrepancy of 14 years, which is filled by our Sages with Yaakov’s study in the house of Shem and Ever.

The question we’ll look at today is how old were Leah and Rachel when Yaakov married them? Were they twins, like Yaakov and Eisav?

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