Vayigash | Yaakov's Daughters, by Rav Yitzchak Etshalom

How many daughters did Yaakov have? (it's not so simple...)

As we all know, Yaakov had 12 sons and one daughter; he had over 45 grandsons and - one granddaughter. This is the information given to us throughout the second half of Bereishit, culminating in the list of emigres to Egypt in Bereishit 46. The statistical improbability of this gender gap is difficult; in addition, the text makes several references to the "daughters" of Yaakov. We survey the opinions of several of the Rishonim in grappling with this problem and then discover a (possibly) surprising approach adopted by both Shmuel David Luzzato as well as R. Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, contemporaneously in two corners of the 19th century Jewish world.

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