Family Nation

Rav Kook makes a connection between the end of Bereishit and the beginning of Shemot. The second book of the Torah begins with the word, ואלה, “and these.” The “and” is significant, as it connects the two books. This connection is meant to tell us that the “seventy souls” that went down to Egypt, were all righteous.

This goes in line with the theory of Rav Yehuda Halevi in Kuzari. He explains that all of the twenty-two generations that preceded Yakov Avinu, were flawed.

When the Torah lists who begat whom, they are listing the one righteous son of a particular family. The implication was that the other members of that family, were really nothing special.

There were twenty generations from Adam to Avraham. We see that Avraham had a less than perfect son in Yishmael. Yitzchak fathered the evil, Eisav.

Yakov Avinu was the first person after a span of more than 2000 years, that had a family where all of his offspring were righteous. This family was worthy of growing into the Jewish nation.

This is why many refer Judaism as more of a “family-nation,” rather than a religion.

While there are mixed emotions about an agreement that involves the release of terrorists and killers, we must feel the pain of the hostages and their families.

As difficult as the situation is, we still must accept this as Hashem’s will. After all, we Jews are really one big family!