Responsibility

After Yaakov died, Yosef had him embalmed. The Medrash tells us that this was unnecessary, and therefore improper. It was held against Yosef later on.

Why did he do it? One suggestion in the m’forshim was that Yosef understood that Yaakov’s body would not rot, and since it would be some time until burial and his body would not rot, people would come to consider Yaakov as a G-d and maybe even worship him. Perhaps they would then even withhold his being buried in Eretz Yisroel on that account. So he made sure that no one would see anything unusual, by embalming Yaakov.

We suggested Yosef accepted responsibility that Yaakov would be buried in Eretz Yisroel. He was duty-bound to do everything to ensure that happening. Even were he personally convinced that Yaakov’s body would never rot, he would be amiss in his obligation if he did not do everything possible that would ensure Yaakov being buried properly. He could not rely on a miracle when he was personally responsible.