פירוש על בראשית 50:12

כאשר צום AS HE COMMANDED THEM — What was it that he had commanded them? This you can gather from the next verse,

ויעשו בניו לו כן כאשר צום, ”his sons did for him exactly in accordance with his instructions.” Rashi understands the emphasis in our verse as being the word בניו “his sons,” i.e. that his grandsons were not to be pallbearers. Some of these grandsons had been mothered by Canaanite women, and Yaakov did not want to be carried by them. If so, it seems hard to understand that Yaakov, while alive and much younger, had not forbidden his sons to marry such women, seeing that Avraham and Yitzchok had both been very concerned about this. Not only this, but Rashi himself on Genesis 38,2 where Yehudah’s marriage to the daughter of a “Canaanite” man by the name of Shua is reported, goes out of his way to explain that the word “Canaanite” in that verse is not an ethnic description but means: “a trader.” It is possible that among Yaakov’s grandchildren there were at least some who had been born to Canaanite mothers, such as “Sha-ul son of the Canaanite” in Genesis (adoptee of Shimon?) As to Rashi explaining that Ephrayim and Menashe acted as pallbearers in lieu of Levi and Joseph, although they too were grandsons of Yaakov, this is no problem, Yaakov having explicitly described both Ephrayim and Menashe as being just like Reuven and Shimon (his sons) in every respect. (Genesis 48,5)

כאשר צום, “as he had commanded them.” Yaakov had told his sons (compare Tanchuma Bamidbar 12) “be careful with my bier and do not allow any of the Canaanites to touch it. You should carry my bier according to the following procedure: ‘Yehudah, Issachar and Zevulun to the east; Reuven, Shimon and Gad from the south; Ephrayim, Menashe and Binyamin from the west; Dan, Asher and Naftali from the north.” Joseph was not to carry the bier as he was a king. Levi was not to carry the bier as in the future he was slated to carry G’d’s Holy Ark, and it is not fitting that anyone who carries the Ark of G’d should carry the ark of a dead person. Yaakov added that if his sons were to abide by his instructions G’d would reward them with flags in the desert. This is what our sages (Rashi on verse 13) referred to when they said that this is why the Torah reports: “his sons carried him;” his grandsons did not participate in that task.

So weit gingen die Ägypter mit, sie gingen nicht mit hinüber in das Land Kanaan. Daher, und auch wohl um das Land der Philister zu umgehen, der Umweg bis zum Jordan. Von dort nahmen die Kinder allein die Leiche und bestatteten sie nach des Vaters Anordnung. Die ganze Begleitung wartete jenseits des Jordans, an der Grenze, bis nach vollendetem Begräbnis und begleitete dann Josef und die Brüder wieder nach Hause.

כאשר צום, “as he had commanded them;” to do during his funeral.