The Torah details the number of people in his family concluding with the statement: All the people of Yaakov’s household who came to Egypt - seventy.

If we calculate those enumerated together with Yosef and his two sons we discover there are only sixty nine people accounted for. Rashi, quoting the Talmud, reveals that the mysterious missing link is none other than Yocheved, the daughter of Levi, who was born just as they entered Egypt, bringing the number in the family to the grand total of seventy.

Yet her name is not mentioned here at all. In fact throughout the entire episode of her heroic efforts as a Jewish midwife risking her life to save the Jewish infants from Pharaoh’s decrees,  her identity as Yocheved is concealed. Even when giving birth to the future savior of our people, Moshe, she is merely referred to as the daughter of Levi. Only later when Moshe begins his mission to rescue the nation does the Torah enumerate his lineage to his mother Yocheved, tracing it back to Levi.

Why all the secrecy? 

This ‘nucleus’ of seventy souls that would in a relatively short span of time burgeon into six hundred thousand adult males, are referred to as Yaakov’s יֹצְאֵי יְרֵכוֹ, literally translated as, ‘emanating from his thigh’ or alternately, ‘the issue from his loins’. This odd term for descendants appears only one other time in the Torah, at the beginning of the book of Shmos, in the very same context, when it reiterates the original number of descendants that accompanied Yaakov down unto Egypt.

It seems a rather primitive way to describe one’s offspring seemingly alluding to the physical region of our body that is associated with reproduction.

Why does the Torah only utilize this description in relationship to Yaakov’s descendants and not by any of the other patriarchs?

Clearly there is more to this than meets the eye.

The ירך, the thigh, plays a vital role in the history of our people. In the cosmic wrestling match with the guardian angel of Esav, as the angel perceives he simply cannot defeat Yaakov, he desperately strikes at Yaakov’s thigh and dislocates his hip joint. Yaakov walks off victorious, yet limping. We commemorate this epic event by refraining from eating the sciatica nerve to this day, ‘because he touched Yaakov’s thigh on the displaced nerve’.

Did the angel choose to attack there because it was the most vulnerable part of his body or was there something specific he was aiming for?

The Midrash records that the angel when realizing he was being overpowered by Yaakov wondered whether Yaakov was a mortal or an angel. Angels are described as עומדים, standing, as they cannot walk since they lack קפיצים, literally ‘springs’, or more clinically, joints that bend and give man the ability to walk and ‘spring’ forward and upward  through the power of their muscles that are innervated by the nerves. The angel groped at the sciatica nerve specifically, this largest nerve in the body that stimulates the leg and foot muscles, to determine whether Yaakov was indeed human.(תנחומא ישן)

Perhaps this represents more than just his human physiology but man’s unique ability to leap and bound mightily towards noble choices and objectives that non free-willed angels are incapable of. Man’s greatness lays in his power to strive and take initiative towards achieving greatness.

The Hebrew word we use for the thigh that possesses the largest nerve in the body, the sciatica nerve, that stimulates the many powerful muscles in our legs and feet that thrust us towards purposeful movement and accomplishment, is יֶרֶך.

The Holy Shelah reveals that this word is an acronym for the three words: ים, the sea; רקיע, the heavens; כסא, the Throne of Glory.

The mighty ‘thigh’ of Yaakov, ruled over; the sea, as evident in his ability to split the Jordan river with his staff allowing him to cross, as the Yaakov attests, “for with my staff I crossed this Jordan” ; the heavens, as manifested when the sun’s curative rays healed him from the angel inflicted wound as it states, ‘the sun rose and shined for him’; the Throne of Glory, apparent in the mystical concept of Yaakov’s image being engraved on this heavenly throne. 

In describing the angel’s attack the Torah writes, ותקע כף ירך יעקב, Yaakov’s hip joint became dislocated. The word used to express the joint socket is כף, is also the same way we pronounce the Hebrew letter 'כ', 'כָף', chof.

This, the Shelah mystically unveils, alludes to the last letter in the word ירך, indicating that the angel was only able to disable this power of Yaakov to be ‘etched’ in the Throne of Glory, but not his might over the ‘sea’ and ‘heaven’.

What is the meaning of all this and its lesson for us?

The Techeles, the special turquoise dye used in the thread of the Tzitzis, serves as a tool to direct its wearer to focus on his duty to G-d, as the Sages state: The  Techeles is similar to the color of the sea, the sea is to the sky, and the sky to G-d’s Throne of Glory.

Perhaps these three items represent the aspirations in man’s service to G-d. We hope to master this physical world by imbuing it with His presence. We seek to connect to the spiritual influences and blessings that emanate from on high. We aim to maintain an ever consciousness of His presence, that enthuses every breath we take, by ‘etching’ it into our very being and psyche, figuratively carrying the Throne of Glory, as it were, constantly in every facet of our lives.

Each one of us has moments when we direct our energy in ‘crossing mighty rivers’. We also experience from time to time the thrill of connecting to a higher reality and perception. But the ability to maintain our focus and ambition on a constant basis is where we falter. These ‘sisyphean’ lapses cause us to never reach the heights we are capable of attaining.

The letter 'כ' serves often as a prefix that means ‘like’ or ‘similar’. Its technical term is the כף הדמיון, literally the chof of imagined comparison. Kabbalistically this refers to our instinctive similarity to a higher entity that pines to fill itself with that higher spirituality. Its very shape, כ,  is symbolic of a container that is ready and eager to receive.

The clever guardian angel of Esav knew where to affect Yaakov’s future generations, in the chof hadimyon, by quashing their ambitions for greatness. It is in during those gaps that we fall into a deep chasm.

The finishing touch on that core of seventy souls from whom our great nation would develop was Yocheved. Her name יוכבד are the same letters in the word כבודי, My Honor, the very Divine Presence Itself. (עשרה מאמרות) 

She would possess an utter consciousness of her mission as bearer of the Throne of Glory. The lack of recognition by name was not evidence of her lack of greatness, au contraire; it was the greatest testament to her radiating the brilliance of G-d in all that she did, with a total subjugation of self. Indeed the Midrash HaGadol says that her name יוכבד relate to her countenance that was ‘similar’ to זיו הכבוד, the radiance of His Honor, the Divine Presence.

The muscles and nerves in our legs not only give us the ability to to ‘spring’ into action but it also allows us to ‘sit and rest’.

This is our ‘Achilles’ thigh!

Will we utilize our superior dexterity to rise to new challenges and hurdle great heights or will we simply sit with complacency dangerously lapsing in our unique mission?

Perhaps this double implication in the notion of יצאי ירכו; the issue of our loins, i.e. our children; the productivity of our mighty ‘thigh’, i.e. our springing into inspired action, are two sides of the same coin.

Only if we succeed in living motivated without gaps and lapses will we succeed in bringing forth holy and inspired fruit.

Yaakov alone brought to fruition the ‘family of Israel’ in the merit of his maintaining a constant focus in his sight on the Throne of Glory.

We too must emulate this attribute of ירך, conquering mighty rivers, aspiring for spiritual blessing and most importantly never forgetting that upon our shoulders rests the Throne of Glory!

באהבה,

צבי טייכמאן