פירוש על בראשית 50:25

וישבע יוסף את בני ישראל, “Joseph adjured the Children of Israel.” When he realized that his brothers were advanced in age, he included also their offspring in this oath as none of his surviving brothers might be alive when the Israelites would leave Egypt. Everyone knew of the exile that awaited them in Egypt and that its conditions would be very harsh. The reason that he did not make them swear to transfer his remains to the Land of Canaan immediately after his death, may well have been that he knew that it was beyond their political power to have such an illustrious ruler as Joseph buried in a foreign country.

Er beschwor, nicht die Brüder, sondern "בני ישראל" somit auch die kommenden Geschlechter. Es liegt keine Anmaßung in dieser Verpflichtung, sie hatten ihn ja herabgebracht, es lag eine kleine Sühne darin, er durfte ihnen diese Verpflichtung auferlegen. Zugleich waren die Verpflichtung und die Gebeine, an denen sie in Erfüllung gebracht werden sollte, eine Bürgschaft für die Zuversicht, mit welcher sie der Rückkehr nach Kanaan entgegenharren sollten.

ויאמר יוסף אל אחיו....וישבע יוסף, “Joseph spoke to his brothers and he made them swear an oath;” It is difficult to understand why Joseph repeated the words פקוד יפקוד. We would have expected him to say: “when G–d will remember you and take you out of Egypt, take my remains with you.” This would have been parallel to Yaakov’s last request from his son Joseph.” (Compare Genesis 47,30) We may be correct in assuming that the first time he used the expression פקוד יפקוד, this was meant as a reference to how Yaakov his father had introduced a similar request.

פקוד יפקוד אתכם אלוקים, “when G’d will eventually recall you, etc.” Joseph reminds his brothers that he is merely a mortal human being, whereas G’d, Who is eternal, will in due course remember them and liberate them from their exile. The reason why he chose the expression פקד as characterizing this redemption may be because this expression was used by the Torah when soldiers returned from battle without having incurred any casualties. (Numbers 31,49) The word also lends itself to allusions of a numerical nature, i.e. the original number of years of slavery i.e. 400 would be reduced by the numerical value of the word פקוד i.e. 190, so that in actual fact the stay of the Israelites in Egypt would amount to only 210 years after Yaakov’s arrival there, the number being characterized by the numerical value of the word רדו, the word used by Yaakov when he instructed his sons to go down to Egypt to buy food in the first place. (compare Genesis 42,2)

פקוד יפקוד אלהים, “G–d will most certainly remember you, etc.” The numerical value of the letters in the word פקוד is 190. It was meant as a hint that G–d would shorten the decree according to which the people would have to wait 400 years for their redemption by 190 years. As a result, they would have spent only 210 years in Egypt at the time of the Exodus. The root פקד has been used as meaning “to be absent” (in the passive mode נפקד) in Numbers 31,49 where the officers returning from the punitive campaign against Midian thanked G–d for having returned without having lost a single soldier in that campaign. Our author comments that the word spelled without the letter ו as it appears in our text invalidates the numerical values quoted. [His attempt at resolving this does not sound convincing to this Editor ]