GEN1530 Except for one technical reference, the very first time that the sons of Jacob were called “the children of Israel” was right after the Torah referred to them for the first time as “the brothers of Joseph.” [this verse].   Why, asks Rashi, did the Torah depict these men as Joseph’s brothers now, when they had been his brothers for thirty-nine years and they had not seen Joseph for twenty-two years? He answers that this is the first time that they had ever felt like true brothers to Joseph, as they were now remorseful when they recalled their sin of hating him and selling him to Egypt, and they wanted to find him and free him in Egypt.   Thus, this the first moment in Jewish history when this family, the Jewish family, was truly united.  It was only then that they were called by the Torah “the children of Israel,” indicating that the essence of the Jewish people is the feeling of harmony that a truly united family feels.  AMJV 193