Musar zu Bereschit 47:29

ועשית עמדי חסד ואמת . The main ingredient of חסד, kindness, is that it be performed without expectation of a reward. Only when performed thus is one called generous; otherwise one is simply a trader. There is no greater virtue than that of חסד. This is why a person must train himself to practice this virtue until it becomes second nature to him. Not only should he perform acts of kindness for the dead, but even more so for the living. By doing so he will emulate the virtues practiced by G–d Himself who constantly performs acts of kindness without any thought of compensation. Concerning this David has said in Psalms 63,4: "For truly Your kindness is better than life itself; my lips declare Your praise." David meant that whereas when human beings practice acts of altruistic loving-kindness, this is almost always with the dead. You, G–d, perform deeds of loving-kindness for the living, by the very fact that You grant us our life. What could we possibly do in the way of compensating You!? All we can do is to pay You lip-service, extol Your virtues in song and prayer. Rashi referred to this in his commentary on 49,21, where he interprets the אמרי שפר as an allusion to the song of victory sung by Deborah after Israel defeated Sisera under her leadership. G–d performs the miracles and all we can do in return is to acknowledge them with our lips.

The positive commandment mentioned in our portion is that of גמילות חסד, the performing of a deed of loving kindness, and specifically that of performing a service for a person after he has died. Such deeds are called the true גמילות חסד. Jacob described the act of burying his remains in ארץ ישראל as such an act of loving kindness. Attending to the burial of a departed, or performing rites of mourning as described near the end of our פרשה are all part of this מצוה. All of this comes under the heading of the positive commandment: והלכת בדרכיו, "You shall walk in His ways, which the סמ"ג enumerates in his list of the 248 positive commandments. I have copied the exact words of the סמ"ג on this subject at the beginning of פרשת וירא.

When Abraham made Eliezer swear that he would not take Isaac back to Charan, he made him swear by the organ on which circumcision had been performed, an organ that therefore had become dear to him, the symbol of the covenant with G–d (Genesis 24,3). Granted that there were good reasons then for the method employed by Abraham, why did Jacob request that Joseph, his son, perform the oath in the same manner by placing his hand on his father's organ (47,29)? Why did Joseph not mention the symbol of the oath that he made the brothers swear by when he in turn requested that the brothers swear they would take his remains with them when the time came for the redemption from Egypt (50,25)?