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Please cite/link your sources, if possible. At some point at least twenty-four hours from now, I will:
Upvote all answers I consider relevant and interesting.
Accept the what I think is the "best" answer.
Go on to the next number.
I hope I didn't set a poor precedent by upping the ante for 246 ...
Every 247 years, the calendar repeats itself. (Sort of.)
The number 247 has a connection to parshas Vayeitzei:
Rashi comments on the first posuk in that parsha:
“And Jacob left” - Scripture had only to write: “And Jacob went to Haran.” Why did it mention his departure? But this tells [us] that the departure of a righteous man from a place makes an impression, for while the righteous man is in the city, he is its beauty (הודה), he is its splendor (זיוה), he is its majesty (הדרה). When he departs from there, its beauty has departed, its splendor has departed, its majesty has departed.
The Beis Meir from Ostrovtsa explains that the three terms that Rashi chose - הוד זיו הדר are alluded to by the word ויצא, because the gematria of ויצא when the letters are spelled out equals the gematria of these three terms:
ויצא = וו יוד צדי אלף = 247
הוד זיו הדר = 247
On February 3, 1944, 247 people from Neu Dachs were gassed at Auschwitz, according to Höss ימח שמו.
The word Remez and the word Zemer both equal 247
