Vayechi—’Bnei Yisrael’: the Sons of Israel or the Israelites?

Throughout the Torah, we, the Jews, are known by the title “Bnei Yisrael”, the “sons of Israel”. The reason is that we are the descendants (bnei) of Jacob, who was later renamed “Yisrael“—Israel. In Parashat Vayechi that we read this week, however, we are told that Joseph made “Bnei Yisrael” swear that they will carry his bones to the Land after the Exodus from Egypt (see Genesis 50:25), and in this case, as well as others in Genesis, the term refers specifically to Jacob’s immediate family, not to the entire people of Israel. The reason for the difference between the two, of course, is that Israel, as a people, did not yet exist. In other words, at some point in time, the term Bnei Yisrael that originally referred to the family of Jacob, or Israel, came to mean the entire nation, or people, of Israel. The question is, when did this change take place and why?

At the beginning of Exodus, we read the following: “These are the names of the sons of Israel (Bnei Yisrael) who came to Egypt with Jacob, each coming with his household… Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation. But the Israelites (u’Vnei Yisrael) were fertile and prolific; they multiplied and increased very greatly, so that the land was filled with them” (Exodus 1:1-7). At the beginning of this section, the term “Bnei Yisrael” refers to the immediate family of Jacob, or Israel, but then later it refers to the Israelites as a people. What happened in the interim? “They multiplied and increased very greatly, so that the land was filled with them”. In other words, it was the numerical growth and expansion of Jacob’s descendants that transformed the meaning of the term Bnei Yisrael from the “children of Israel” to the “Israelites”. There is, however, another reason for this.

Had they merely grown and increased numerically they would have eventually assimilated into Egyptian society and culture among which they lived. However, it was their ability—despite being comprised of 12 children and their families—to preserve their collective identity, culture and values, that allowed them to grow and flourish as a people, and to eventually be perceived as a threat to the Egyptians and the Egyptian way of life. Furthermore, it was because they cried out to God as Bnei Yisrael, as a single and unified people, that “their cry… rose up to God”, that God “heard their moaning”, and then redeemed them from Egyptian bondage (see Exodus 2:23-25),

The population of the State of Israel—named after the people of Israel—that at the time of its founding in 1948 was a mere 800,000, now numbers a whopping 10,000,000. This remarkable growth is reminiscent of the growth of Bnei Yisrael in Egypt during biblical times. Furthermore, after October 7, we, like Bnei Yisrael then, put aside our differences and came together as a people, united around a common cause and common values. Unfortunately, however, tensions that existed beforehand have recently resurfaced and the bonds between us have begun to fray.

The question is will we allow these tensions to fester and tear us apart or will we find a way to maintain our identity as Bnei Yisrael, both the biological sons of Israel as well as a people, united around a shared history, shared values, and a shared dream of a bright and beautiful future?

Shabbat Shalom.