This lesson demonstrates, through calculations impossible to invent, that the Torah is not a human work. The first word of each parasha encodes secrets only He who knows the end from the beginning could write.

"Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years." The opening word וַיְחִי ("and he lived") breaks down as: ו(6) + י(10) + ח(8) + י(10) = 34.

"The life of Sarah was one hundred years and twenty years and seven years." The first word וַיִּהְיוּ equals: 6+10+5+10+6 = 37.

For Sarah, her "life" was Yitzchak; hence וַיִּהְיוּ = 37, his age at her death. But Yaakov had twelve sons: whom does the Torah mean when it says "and he lived"?

"These are the generations of Jacob: Joseph." Yaakov meant to marry Rachel first; had Lavan not deceived him, Yosef would have been the firstborn. That is why Yosef receives the Ketonet Passim (the firstborn's garment), all the Torah of Shem and Ever, and the double portion (Ephraim and Menashe).

The three Patriarchs correspond to the first three days of Creation. Avraham (day 1): כִּי טוֹב once. Yitzchak (day 2): no כִּי טוֹב. Yaakov (day 3): כִּי טוֹב said TWICE.

"5th hour: Adam stood on his feet." Adam was created on the 6th day and rose at the 5th hour of the day; but the Jewish day begins at night. So: 12 hours of night + 5 hours of day = 17th hour.

"עָמַד עַל רַגְלָיו" — Adam stands up, and Adam also denotes Israel ("you are called Adam"). The Talmud, written fifteen centuries ago, encodes the exact date of Israel's rise.

3300 years ago: no computer, no calculator, no knowledge of 1948 nor of the fate of Yaakov and Yosef. And yet everything fits: וַיְחִי = 34 (17+17), וַיִּהְיוּ = 37, טוֹב = 17 said twice, and the 17th hour = 5708 = 1948.