OU TORAH YU TORAH NAALEH.COM Assessing Aging By Shira Smiles

Adapted by Channie Koplowitz Stein When Yaakov and his family arrive in Egypt, Yosef introduces his brothers and his father to Pharaoh. The dialogue between Pharaoh and the brothers follows a usual pattern of introductions, but the dialogue between Pharaoh and Yaakov seems somewhat strange and even impolite. Pharaoh asks Yaakov how old he is, “How many are the days of the years of your life?” Yaakov’s response is even stranger, “The days of the years of my sojourns have been a hundred and thirty years. Few and bad have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not reached the life spans of my forefathers in the days of their sojourns.”