How Old Are You Now?

(7) Joseph then brought his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh; and Jacob greeted Pharaoh. (8) Pharaoh asked Jacob, “How many are the years of your life?” (9) And Jacob answered Pharaoh, “The years of my sojourn [on earth] are one hundred and thirty. Few and hard have been the years of my life, nor do they come up to the life spans of my fathers during their sojourns.” (10) Then Jacob bade Pharaoh farewell, and left Pharaoh’s presence.

(1) YEARS OF MY SOJOURN— means the days of my being a stranger. All my days I have been a stranger in other peoples’ lands. (2) NOR DO THEY COME UP TO... so far as happiness/goodness is concerned.

"How many are the years of your life?"

Simple meaning (p'shat): Because Pharaoh saw that Jacob looked very old, and the hair of his head and his beard were white from an abundance of old age, Pharaoh asked this. Jacob answered him, "the years of my sojourn [on earth] are one hundred and thirty. Few and hard have been the years of my life," meaning, my years may have been few, but because of hard things that happened to me, old age has come upon me.

Life-lesson meaning (midrash): At the time that Jacob said, "Few and hard have been the years of my life," the Holy Blessed One said to him, "I rescued you from Esau and Laban, I returned to you Dinah and Joseph, yet you are discontented with your life, saying that [your years] were few and hard! By your life, the number of words that are from "Pharaoh asked" until "years of my sojourn," such shall be missing from your years, so that you will not live as long as your father Isaac!" These were 33 words, and this number of years were missing from his life, as Isaac lived 180 years, but Jacob only lived 147.