Shabbos Parashas Vayechi - 5777

Shabbos Parashas Vayechi - 5777

Rabbi Hal Miller

The time approached for Israel to die, so he called for his son, for Yosef, and said to

him, "Please, if I have found favor in your eyes, please place your hand under my

thigh and do kindness and truth with me. Please do not bury me in Egypt." [Bereishis 47:29]

A few chapters later, in [50:4], Yosef stands before Pharaoh to obtain permission to take

his father's body to Canaan for burial. Yosef knows that Pharaoh may not be pleased about

this for any of a number of reasons as discussed by the commentators, so he here tries to

make his case in the best possible light. But what he says does not match exactly what our

verse says. He tells Pharaoh, "My father made me swear, saying, 'Behold I am about to die.

In my grave which I have hewn for me in the land of Canaan, there you are to bury me'."

Did Yaakov tell Yosef that he dug his own grave before leaving Canaan? Not exactly. The

closest he came is in the verse after ours, [47:30], "For I will lie down with my fathers and you

shall bring me out of Egypt and bury me in their tomb." We could infer that Yaakov's fathers

dug the cave, but in no way does this say Yaakov did. Did Yosef lie?

All Yaakov said was, "Please do not bury me in Egypt," which Yosef neglects to mention to

Pharaoh. Nechama Leibowitz, among many others, explains Yosef's forgetfulness. "As a

foreigner in Egypt, he did not want to offend the susceptibilities of his host." We can understand

this discretion in leaving out Yaakov's reasoning, but how do we accept Yosef's editing of facts?

Leibowitz continues, "The reference here is, of course, to the cave of Machpelah, which Yaakov

had not himself dug. Yosef, however, was well acquainted with Egyptian custom. An Egyptian

nobleman always prepared in his lifetime his own grave, and only there would he be buried.

Pharaoh would therefore appreciate the force of Yosef's request. It is quite clear, therefore, that

the variations, the omissions and insertions made by Yosef were not accidental."

Malbim gives four reasons for Yosef's conversation with Pharaoh, although not all on our

specific point. His fourth reason, though, is "in my grave that I dug for myself, Yaakov dug his

own grave so that it should serve as a constant reminder for him of the day of death." Since,

as we know, the Cave of Machpelah was not dug by Yaakov, it must be referring to some form

of preparation, even if only in the "setting aside", that will serve this "constant reminder"

purpose.

We can generalize this lesson beyond the setting aside of a grave. When we set anything

aside, be it for the Temple, for charity, or even for lunch, we are endowing it with some

status of great importance to us. It reminds us every time we look at it, use it, think of it,

whatever, of what purpose we gave it. Our act or words of setting aside bestow upon this

object a special sanctity, beyond what it would have in nature. This is true all the moreso

when we set aside something for Hashem, or set aside someone as special in our lives.

Our words and actions have huge impact in the universe.