Yosef asked his brothers to promise to take his body out with them when they left Egypt. Chazal teach that all the brothers were taken out of Egypt when the Jews left. If so, why did Yosef need to ask that they take him out; why was he any worse than his brothers?
The kinderlach answered that since Yosef was a king, a national figure in Egypt, the Egyptians might not wish to let his body leave. So he especially swore them in that they ensure he leaves.
I suggested that indeed his own family would have taken him out, as all the brothers were taken out by their families. Yosef, however, requested that the entire Jewish people take him out, for he was a king to them all. Indeed, the pasuk says that he was buried in Shchem by the entire people. (However, the gemarrah in Sotah (13b) asks why Moshe took Yosef out and not the entire people or his children, and answers that they let Moshe do it for it was to Yosef’s greater honor that Moshe himself dealt with him. After Moshe died all of Israel dealt with Yosef, this too was allowed, for it was to Yosef’s greater honor that all Israel should deal with him and not only his children. If indeed this was Yosef’s express wish, what need was there for any justification that this was to Yosef’s greater honor?)
You must log in to post a comment.