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What Is the Significance of the Number 40 in Jewish Tradition?
Our last Torah Trivia asked where the number 40 appears in the Torah. BIG, MD, RAW & FSRT listed them: 40 days & nights of rain in the Great Flood; the Meraglim’s 40 days of scouting Israel, which resulted in the 40 years Bnei Yisrael wandered in the desert; 40 years of Moshe returning to Egypt to lead Bnei Yisrael out of slavery; 40 days to embalm Yakov; one of Avraham's bargaining positions to save Sodom; Yitzhak's & Esav's age at marriage; the number of cows in Yakov's gift to Esav; 40 lashes given by the Sanhedrin (in practice only 39 were administered); Moshe's 40 days on Har Sinai to receive the 10 Commandments. (We might also add the Medrash that says at 40 days of conception a Heavenly voice proclaims who this fetus will eventually marry).
The common theme between almost all of these events is that 40 represents significant change & transformation. And so the world changed dramatically during the Flood, when we left Egypt for Israel, when we received the Torah, etc.
The common theme between almost all of these events is that 40 represents significant change & transformation. And so the world changed dramatically during the Flood, when we left Egypt for Israel, when we received the Torah, etc.