- This topic has 14 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 10 months ago by .
-
Posts
-
When enough time passes, I get Joseph, Jacob, and Issac confused.
I know that Jacob’s name refers to his heel. And he has one sibling, Esav.
I mix up his father though. I keep thinking that Jacob’s father is Joseph when I think of the story where Joseph touches the fur that Jacob puts on his arm and thinks it’s Esav’s arm instead.
Isaac is Abraham’s son at the altar.
So the lineage goes from Isaac, then Jacob, to Joseph.
Please: What’s a good pneumonic device to remember Joseph, Jacob, & Isaac’s relation, as well as their wives?
Thank you!
BTW: Who’s after Joseph? Don’t all the brothers have their tribes from there?
Just remember the song, “I am Yosef, is my father still alive?” (It’s still running through my head).
That’s what Yosef said to his brothers when he revealed himself to them. And you can remember this now, thanks to my thread!
Lightbrite, you need a good mnemonic for remembering how to spell mnemonic.
Pneumonic: of, relating to, or affecting the lungs, as in pneumonic plague, which is more virulent than bubonic plague.
It might help to think about their titles and their real Hebrew names:
Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov are called “Avinu”, our father, as in Avraham Avinu, since they are the 3 forefathers. It is their names that we say in davening “G-d of our fathers, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov.”
Yosef is called Yosef Hatzaddik, the righteous, since he overcame his Evil Inclination when in an immoral environment (Potiphar’s house in Egypt).
Yosef had 2 sons, Menashe and Efraim, born in Egypt. They actually took over his place as one of the 12 tribes- his tribe was split into 2, for example, for purposes of inheriting portions in the Land of Israel (each tribe’s descendants got their own portion as part of that tribe, as did Efraim and Menashe.) The names of all the descendants of the original 12 sons as they go to Egypt is listed in this week’s Parsha, each extended family is recognized as a tribe of the same name as the son of Yaakov from which they descend.
It is a great time now to catch up on these facts, since the recent and coming parshiyot that we read each shabbos in shul deal with Yosef and his brothers and sons.
Alphabetical order.
Isaac
Jacob
Joseph
Why am I always put last?
Joseph, think of poor Zevulun.
catch yourself,
Abraham
Isaac
Jacob
Joseph
Not really a mnemonic, but here’s one way to think about it. The avos are in the order in the first line of the first bracha of the Shemonei Esrei – -Elokei Avraham, Elokei Yitzhak, Elokei Yaakov. Yaakov fights with an angel and then is renamed Israel, or he who fights with God. Yaakov/Israel is synonymous with the Jewish people because his children were each the head of one of the 12 tribes (except for his son Yosef, whose two children each were head of their own tribe.) Does that help at all! Hatzlacha!
Yosef is not one of the patriarchs, Avos. There are only 3- Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov.
It is actually interesting, because despite Yaakov’s preference of Yosef over his brothers, and giving him the firstborn’s right to a double portion (his tribe being split into 2 and getting 2 portions in the Land of Israel), aftwerwards, other shevatim become more prominent- for example, Levi as the leaders in Egypt after the passing of Yaakov’s 12 sons, culminating of course in Moshe and Aron, and kehuna. And then Yehuda, the tribe of royalty, and of course, Mashiach. They are represented in the ushpizin too- as Moshe, Aron and Dovid.
Do you know the song we sing at the end of the seder- Echud Mi Yodea (Who knows one)?
here is a popular kids’ version/translation of the original (Uncle Moishy I think?)
“Who knows 4? I know 4? 4 are the mothers and 3 are the fathers and 2 are the luchos that Moshe brought..and One is Hashem, one is Hashem, one is Hashemmmm… in the Heavens and the Earth…ooh, ah, ooh ooh ah…”
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.