Commento su Genesi 48:7

'ואני בבאי מפדן וגו AND AS FOR ME, WHEN I CAME FROM PADAN etc. — “And although I trouble you to take me for burial into the land of Canaan and I did not do this for your mother (i.e., I did not take the trouble to bury her in a place other than that in which she died, which was by the road-side) which I might easily have done since she died quite close to Bethlehem”.

AND I BURIED HER THERE. In Rashi’s commentary it is written, “And I did not transport her for burial even to Bethlehem to bring her into the Land.”
Now I do not know the meaning thereof. Was Rachel buried outside of the Land? Forbid it! She died within the Land, and she was buried there, just as it says here in the parshah: Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan.³⁴In the verse before us. And there in the narrative of her death it is still more clearly written, And Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan — the same is Beth-el,³⁵Above, 35:6. and it is further stated, And they journeyed from Beth-el and there was still some way to come to Ephrath,³⁶Ibid., Verse 16. and Rachel died on the way between Beth-el and Bethlehem Ephratha in the Land of Israel.

ואני בבואי מפדן, on the same route after G’d had given me His blessing, מתה עלי רחל, while I was still on the same route, this is why I had to bury her there while on the way. There did not present itself an opportunity to bury her next to Leah in the cave of Machpelah. Yaakov elaborated on this now so that Joseph would not consider him as having been criminally negligent in not according his mother the kind of burial she was entitled to.

ואני, maybe you think that when G’d said to me: “I will make you into a community of nations,” that He meant that I myself would become the father of more sons but that I was denied those on account of some sin, this cannot be because

ואני בבאי מפדן מתה עלי רחל, "As for me, when I was coming from Padan Rachel died on me, etc." This verse seems to lack any connection to what preceded it. We do not even know what purpose this information is supposed to serve at this point. It is true that Rashi based on Midrash Lekach Tov explains that Jacob wanted to explain to Joseph why he had imposed upon him the difficult and tedious task of burying him in the land of Canaan while he himself had not buried Rachel in the cave of Machpelah which was much closer to the site of her death than Egypt from Machpelah. If that had been the Torah's purpose in writing this then it should have appeared in conjunction with 47,30 rather than here. Besides, what did Jacob mean when he said עלי, "she died on me?"

ואני, this entire paragraph was inserted to describe Yaakov’s apology or justification to Joseph why he, who was so insistent on where he wanted to be buried and who was putting Joseph to so much trouble in this connection, had himself not acted in a similar manner when it came to burying Joseph’s mother, his own favourite wife, seeing that he had buried Leah in the cave of Machpelah. He explained that he had in no way been at fault, that it was not negligence on his part, but that fate had intervened, Rachel dying suddenly on route to the land of Canaan. The fact that he was moving extremely slowly at the time on account of all his livestock, something that the Torah had reported Yaakov as explaining already to Esau at the time, (33,13) made it impossible for him to carry Rachel’s body with him seeing he had no means to embalm it and keep it from decaying and becoming putrid until he would reach Chevron. Presumably, the season was summer when it is even harder to keep a body from decaying quickly. He therefore chose to bury her without delay, in the most dignified manner which the prevailing conditions had permitted.

ואקברה שם, “and I was forced to bury her there.” Nachmanides questioned what Rashi explains here, i.e. that Yaakov apologized to Joseph that he had not even been able to transport the remains of Rachel the short distance to Beyt Lechem so that she would be buried on holy soil. Nachmanides feels that the text does not only not support this, but supports the very reverse, that Rachel, though not buried in a cemetery, was indeed buried within the boundaries of Eretz Yisrael. Why else would Yaakov have said that Rachel had died suddenly, “in the land of Canaan?” Yaakov’s apology concerned the fact that he had not buried Rachel in the cave of Machpelah in Chevron, not that he had buried her outside the boundaries of the Holy Land. He emphasizes that although he had not been able to bury her in Machpelah, at least he had been able to bury her inside the Holy Land. He had not been able to abandon his entire family and carry the remains of Rachel all the way to the cave of Machpelah. He himself was likely to be buried outside of the Holy Land unless he could arrange before his death to have his remains transferred, as he was about to request from Joseph. If, at the time of Rachel’s death he would have moved his entire camp with him to the cave of Machpelah, a journey which takes a half a day for a single traveler would have consumed many days and would have been a great indignity for the remains of Rachel as he had no means to embalm her and to prevent her body from decomposing in the interval. Joseph had been fully aware of the circumstances of his mother’s death, as well as the fact that Yaakov could not have buried the remains of two sisters both of whom had been his wife, in the cave of Machpelah. The reason why he buried Leah in that cave was that he had, after all, married her first. Rachel died in “Ramah,” hence רמת רחל,” part of the territory of Binyamin after the distribution of the land by Joshua. Our sages who explain all this allegorically, say that Rachel had to die when she entered the Holy Land, in order that Yaakov not become guilty of being married to two sisters both of whom were alive, something that the Torah had forbidden. Yaakov received instructions from on high to bury Rachel where he did, so that her spirit, in due course, could petition G’d when her “children,” would be taken into captivity by the Babylonian general Nebuzaradan. Some commen-tators say that Yaakov explained to Joseph that the reason he had buried his mother on the way to Efrat was that this was within the tribal territory of one of her sons, whereas had she been buried in Machpelah, she would not have been interred in soil belonging to her offspring. Burying her in earth that would belong to the descendants of Leah would not have been something compatible with her dignity.

ואני בבואי מפדן, “as to my own situation, when I was on the way from Padan, etc.,” seeing that Yaakov was about to request from Joseph that he bury him in the cave of Machpelah he first had to apologise to him for not having brought Joseph’s mother Rachel to be buried there; this is why he said: “Rachel died on me on the journey in the land of Canaan.” He emphasised that Rachel too had been buried in the Holy Land and not outside its boundaries. The fact that she was not buried in the cave of Machpelah was due only to her sudden and unexpected death which did not afford Yaakov an opportunity to carry her all the way to Chevron seeing he had so many children and cattle with him. Had he buried her there she would have started to decompose on the journey to that cave which would have taken several days at least. According to our best estimates today such a journey should not have taken longer than half a day. This is why he emphasised that although she died “on the way,” she was not buried on the way, but on a hill, a distinctive place.

When the earth is riddled with holes like a sieve. Rashi explained כברת as a measure. Nevertheless, since Scripture chose to use the word כברת, both [explanations] are implied.

ואקברה שם, I had to bury her there as her body was in a physically detestable state as a result of just having given birth (which did not enable me to delay burying her without subjecting her body to indignities).

מתה עלי, es war ein Verhängnis, das über mich gekommen. כברת siehe Kap.35, 16. — Man pflegt die Äußerung, in welcher Jakob hier auf Rachels Tod und Begräbnis hinblickt, als Entschuldigung dafür zu erklären, dass er ein so bedeutendes Gewicht darauf legt, in Machpela begraben zu werden, und doch Josefs Mutter selbst nicht dort begraben hatte. Allein, wäre dies der Sinn, so hätten wir dies oben bei der früheren Unterredung erwarten sollen, wo Jakob sich eben das Versprechen hinsichtlich seines Begräbnisses geben ließ. In dem Zusammenhange, in welchem wir es hier erblicken, kann es nur in Beziehung zu der hier, hinsichtlich der Söhne Josefs, getroffenen Bestimmung stehen. In dieser Unterredung bis zu dem Momente, in welchem er V 8 seinen Enkeln die Stellung in der Zukunft seiner Nation segnend erteilt, wird Jakob nur als Jakob und nicht als Jisrael bezeichnet. Als Josef Raw Hirsch on Genesis 48: 2 zu ihm kam ויתהזק ישראל nahm sich Jakob zusammen, um Josef nicht nur als seinen Sohn, sondern in seiner Bedeutung für die nationale Zukunft anzuschauen, die an den Namen שראל׳ sich knüpft, und von diesem Standpunkt aus spricht er auch Raw Hirsch on Genesis 48: 8 seinen Segen über Josefs Söhne aus. Allein deren Begünstigung als Doppelstamm floss aus Jakobs individueller Beziehung, daher Raw Hirsch on Genesis 48: 3 ויאמר יעקב, und erst Raw Hirsch on Genesis 48: 8 wieder ירא ישראל. Es scheint nämlich diese Begünstigung der Söhne Josefs nicht aus nationalen Rücksichten, sondern aus individuell persönlichen Beziehungen erflossen zu sein, die Jakob als Jakob, als Mensch in seiner Individualität, berühren. In den letzten Tagen seines Lebens tritt ihm ganz besonders das Bild der Frau ins Gedächtnis, die er am innigsten geliebt, die das eigentliche Weib seiner Wahl gewesen, die ihn am frühesten verlassen und die ihrem ganzen Geschicke nach Gefahr lief, für die späteren Nationalerinnerungen in den Hintergrund zu treten. Wenn einmal die Söhne Israels in späteren Zeiten das Grab ihrer Stammeltern aufsuchen, werden sie Abraham und Sara, Jizchak und Rebekka, Jakob und Lea finden, aber Rahel, Josefs Mutter, war es nicht einmal im Tode vergönnt, ihren Platz in der gemeinsamen Ruhestätte der Stammeseltern zu erhalten. Und nur zwei Stämme — ganz gleich den früher Mägde gewesenen Müttern Bilha und Silpa — nennen sie ihre Mutter. So würde gerade das Weib seines Herzens, das er sich als die eigentliche Mutter seines künftigen Volkes gedacht, aus dem Herzen der Nation verschwinden. Daher war es Jakobs Herzensbedürfnis, Josef, Rahels Erstgeborenen, zum Erstgeborenen seines Stammvolkes zu erheben, ihm durch Bestimmung seiner Söhne zum Doppelstamm die nationale Erstgeburt zu erteilen und damit zugleich Rahels Gedächtnis wenigstens in einem Stamme mehr als Bilhas und Silpas fortleben zu lassen.

ואני בבואי מפדן ארם, “as far as I a am concerned, when I came from Padan Aram , etc.” (Yaakov, who insists on being buried in the cave of Machpelah, owes Joseph an explanation for why he did not bury Joseph’s mother Rachel there, when he was much closer).“Rachel died on me suddenly at a time when I did not yet possess undisputed entitlement to that burial ground, since your uncle Esau had not yet ceded it to me by leaving the Land of Canaan with his whole family, so that an attempt to do so would have involved me in a confrontation with Esau, and it would have been most unseemly for your mother remaining unburied at that time. When I buried my wife Leah in the cave of Machpelah, Esau had already vacated the land of Canaan.”

כברת ארץ is a measure of land equal to 2000 cubits which is the extent of a Sabbath day’s journey. This is according to the statement of R. Moses the Expositor. — “Do not imagine that it was the rains which prevented me from bringing her to Hebron for burial. It was the dry season when the ground is riddled and full of holes like a sieve (כברה).

בבואי מפדן, when I came away from Padan Aram, when G’d appeared to me,

ואקברה שם בדרך אפרת, “and I buried her there on the way to Efrat.” The words “I buried her there” would have sufficed. Why did he add the words: “on the way to Efrat?” We have already seen told that Rachel died only a tract of land away from Efrat, another name for Bethlehem. Yaakov hinted what our sages told us in Bereshit Rabbah 82,10 that Yaakov buried Rachel where he did as he foresaw that in the future Jews going into exile would pass her grave and she would offer prayers on their behalf. This is what the prophet (Jeremiah 31,15) referred to when he wrote: “Thus said the Lord: ‘a voice is heard in Ramah- wailing bitter weeping- Rachel weeping for her children.’” All of these details Yaakov revealed now so that Joseph would not become angry at what might appear an unreasonable request by his father who himself had not shown such concern about Joseph’s mother. This is what Nachmanides wrote on our verse.

Even to Beis Lechem in order to bring her to a [settled] land... You might ask: Does the verse not state clearly that she was buried in Eretz Yisrael? For it is written, “Rochel died unto me in the land of Canaan,” and Canaan is Eretz Yisrael. [If so, why does Rashi say that Yaakov did not bring her לארץ?] The answer is: Surely she was buried in Eretz Yisrael, but לארץ means “to an inhabited town,” as in ארץ נושבת (Shemos 16:35).

Actually, having told Joseph that G'd had told him that he would have more children himself, Jacob now explained to Joseph that it was his own fault that this did not happen as Rachel had died prematurely because of his negligence by delaying to honour the vow he had made after the dream of the ladder. This is the meaning of מתה עלי, "she died on my account." The words ואני בבאי refer to the promised additional children not being physical issue of Jacob but that Joseph's children were the incarnation of that promise. Vayikra Rabbah 37,1 tells us that if someone makes a vow and is tardy in keeping it he is punished by having to bury his wife. Jacob's saying ואני בבאי מפדן מתה עלי רחל is quoted as the source for this statement. Alternatively, Jacob may have referred to his rash curse of "anyone who has stolen Laban's teraphim shall not live" which he made without knowing that Rachel had been the thief. In either event, had Rachel remained alive Jacob himself would have sired the additional sons G'd had promised to him in 35,11.

AND I BURIED HER THERE. “Now I know that there is some resentment in your heart against me [for not having brought her into the city]. But you should know that I buried her there by the word of G-d, that she might help her children when Nebuzaradan³⁷Chief general of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who destroyed the city of Jerusalem, burned the Temple, and led the people into captivity (II Kings 25:8-21). would exile them,” for when they passed along that road, Rachel came forth from her grave and stood by her tomb beseeching mercy for them, as it is said, A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children,³⁸Jeremiah 31:15. and the Holy One, blessed by He, answered her, Thy work shall be rewarded … and the children shall return to their own border.³⁹Ibid., Verses 16-17. This is the language of Rashi.
Now in any case there should be some allusion in Scripture to this interpretation which is stated in this Agadah. Perhaps this is alluded to in the expression of the verse, She died by me … in the way … And I buried her in the way,⁴⁰The second baderech (in the way) is unnecessary except as an allusion to “the way” which Rachel’s children were destined to use when they went into captivity. (Bachya. See my Hebrew commentary on Ramban, p. 261.) that is to say, “She died on the road which her children would pass, and I buried her there for her advantage.” She did not die on the road, but in Ramah,⁴¹See Ramban, above, 35:16. a city in the land of Benjamin, and there she was buried. [Thus, according to the Midrash, Scripture is implying that] she died on the road which her children were destined to pass in the future, as Scripture does not fully explain future events but only alludes to them in a general manner.
In line with the plain meaning of Scripture, it is likewise understood that Jacob spoke to Joseph in an apologetic vein so that when he discerned his father’s wish to be buried in the cave of Machpelah, Joseph should not be angered about his failure to bury his mother there just as he buried Leah there. It was for this reason that Jacob told him that she died in the land of Canaan, and she was not buried outside of the Land in the manner in which an Egyptian burial would befall Jacob. Furthermore, she died on the road suddenly, and he could not bury her in the cave of Machpelah for how could he leave his children and his flocks on the road and hurry with her body to the cave of Machpelah? And where could he find doctors and medicines to embalm her? This is the meaning of the word alai (by me) [in the verse, Rachel died by me]. Even though the cave of Machpelah is but a half-day’s distance from the place of her death, Jacob was heavily laden with much cattle and family, and he would not arrive there for many days. Thus he did indeed spend many days on that road until he came to his father. Our Sages have further taught:⁴²Moed Katan 27a. “The bier of a woman may never be set down, out of respect.”
Now it is my opinion that these are but words of apology as Joseph already knew that Rachel died on the road and was buried in the Land, and that honor was paid to her when she died. But the reason Jacob did not transport Rachel to the cave of Machpelah was so that he should not bury two sisters there,⁴³For being married concurrently to two sisters was later prohibited by the Torah (Leviticus 18:18). See also Ramban above, pp. 330-2. for he would be embarassed before his ancestors. Now Leah was the one he married first, and thus her marriage was permissible, while he married Rachel out of his love for her and because of the vow he made to her.⁴⁴Since he married her while already married to Leah, the wedding to Rachel would have been forbidden according to the Torah’s later prohibition. Hence her burial place could not be in the cave of Machpelah. See my Hebrew commentary, p. 262.

ואקברה שם, “I buried her there,” (where she had died) I knew that the piece of land where I buried her would in the future be still part of the ancestral heritage of Binyamin, and it would be fitting for her to have her last resting place in soil that would be part of her children’s heritage. We find an interesting verse in Samuel 10,2, where Samuel has just crowned the first Jewish King, Shaul, a descendant of Rachel from the tribe of Binyamin, and says to the newly crowned King: “when you leave me this day, you will meet two men near the tomb of Rachel in the territory of Binyamin, at a place called Zeltzah;” Yaakov, added that if he had buried Rachel in the cave of Machpelah, which is in the territory of Yehudah, a son of Leah, this would not have been appropriate, seeing that she and Leah had been rivals during their lifetime. An alternate exegesis of this paragraph, quotes Yaakov as follows: “the reason that I have buried your mother where I did, at the time, was that seeing that she had died in childbirth and having to transport her any distance would most likely have resulted in her blood becoming putrid after having soiled her shroud. Seeing that I wanted to at least bury her in the holy soil of the land of Israel, I buried her where I did, just inside that land.”(Compare Rashi’s commentary on this verse, according to whom Rachel’s tomb was outside the Holy Land.)

ואקברה שם AND I BURIED HERE THERE and did not carry her even the short distance to Bethlehem to bring her into a city. I know that in your heart you feel some resentment against me. Know, however, that I buried her there by the command of God”. And the future proved that God had commanded him to do this in order that she might help her children when Nebuzaradan would take them into captivity. For when .they were passing along that road Rachel came forth from her grave and stood by her tomb weeping and beseeching mercy for them, as it is said, (Jeremiah 31:15) “A voice is heard in Rama, [the sound of weeping … Rachel weeping for her children]”, and the Holy One, blessed be He, replied to her (v. 16) “There is a reward for thy work, says the Lord etc. (v. 17) for thy children will return to their own border”. Onkelos translated it (כברת ארץ) by כרוב ארעא which is a full measure of one day’s ploughing. I am of opinion that they had a definite measure which they called “one full furrow”; old French cordié. So we say, (Bava Metzia 107a) “He ploughs (כריב) and ploughs again”, and (Yoma 43b) “as much earth as a fox carries on its feet from a ploughed field (בי כרבא).”

מתה עלי רחל, as the sages say (Sanhedrin 22) a woman’s death is felt first and foremost by her husband; [hence the justification for Yaakov saying עלי, “for me,” i.e. the loss was mine. Ed.]

I buried her there so that she may help her descendants... You might ask: Did Rashi not previously explain (30:15) that “because she made light of being with the tzaddik, she did not merit being buried with him”? The answer is: Although this caused her to not be buried with him in Me’aras Hamachpelah, the question remains: why did she not merit burial in a town, rather than in a field? Perforce, “So she might help her descendants...” But we cannot say that “help her descendants” was the sole reason, and not “she made light.” For if so, why was Rochel — out of all the matriarchs — not buried with Yaakov? Surely, it was also because “she made light.” Question: Why did Yaakov tell Yoseif only now that her burial on the road was according to the word of Hashem? [The answer is:] Yaakov did not want to reveal to him the future troubles [of Israel’s exile] until necessary. For if not now, when?

It is also possible that Jacob intended to placate Joseph for having been instrumental in hastening his mother's death. He told him that the reason he considered Joseph's two sons as if they were equal to Reuben and Shimon was in expiation for having caused Rachel's death at the time. He added that although he buried Rachel בעוד כברת ארץ, "a tract of land away, (and had not buried her in the cave of Machpelah)," he asked Joseph to go to the trouble of burying him there.

בדרך בעוד כברת ארץ לבא אפרתה, immediately after G’d finished speaking to me before I had even arrived at Beyt Lechem, ואקברה שם בדרך אפרת, and I had to bury her there on the route to Efrat; I was so overcome by grief at the time that I did not even have the strength to transport her remains to the burial grounds in Beyt Lechem. There is no doubt that ever since her death my heart was so full of grief that my libido had completely ceased to be active and I would not have been able to sire more children and to thereby become dirtied by sin, even if I had felt the desire to do so. [The author describes the act of procreation as “sinful,” meaning that even among the most pious, the act of ejaculating is itself accompanied by some impure thought, a degree of physical gratification. Ed.].

As is mentioned: “He plows repeatedly.” This means to plow and then repeat it.