창세기 47:30의 주석

ושכבתי עם אבתי BUT I WILL LIE WITH MY FATHERS — This ו of ושכבתי is the connecting link with the beginning of the verse above: Put thy hand beneath my thigh and swear unto me that you will not bury me in Egypt. For I must ultimately lie with my fathers (i.e. die as all my fathers have died) and you shall carry me out of Egypt. One cannot say that “I will lie with my fathers” means “make me lie with my fathers in the cave” (i.e. bury me), for immediately after this it is written “And thou shalt carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place”. Further we find that wherever the term “lying with one’s fathers” is used it denotes dying and not burial. For instance, (1 Kings 2:10) “and David lay with his fathers”, and afterwards it states “and he was buried in the city of David”.

ושכבתי עם אבותי, the matter of “the deceased lying with his fathers,” is the placing the bier with the deceased at the place of the eulogy, surrounded by the mourners and those eulogising him. This is why the same expression is used throughout the Book of Kings, whether describing the burial of kings, the righteous, or the wicked.

ויאמר אנכי אעשה כדבריך. He said: "l will do in accordance with your instructions." Why did Joseph have to announce that he was going to do all this? All he had to do was to place his hand where his father had asked and make the promise and that would be his reply to his father's request. This is what Eliezer did when Abraham made him swear an oath concerning his selecting a wife for Isaac (Genesis 24,9).

אנכי אעשה כדברך, “I shall do as you have said.” I will carry out your instructions. Alternately, the meaning is that Joseph conveyed to his father that he would do what he had asked him to do because he himself would do the same when the time came, and he too would ask his brothers and children to ensure that he would eventually be interred in the Holy Land. Both Yaakov and Joseph made his son/brothers swear, even though Yaakov had already had a direct assurance by G’d before he came to Egypt that He would accompany him back to his grave in the land of Canaan. He also had no reason to doubt Joseph’s sincerity and uprightness. He wanted Joseph to render an oath so that he could use this as an argument before Pharaoh in case the latter would object to the fact that someone who had been able to stop the famine, would not be honoured by the Egyptians by being given a burial and a monument in that land. In the event, Pharaoh did give permission, stressing that it was Joseph’s duty to honour his oath to his father. (50,7)

ושכבתי עם אבותי ונשאתני ממצרים, “I wish to lie with my fathers and that you carry me up from Egypt.” The first request pertained to his spirit, the second to his body. Yaakov meant that he was convinced that even if his body were to be buried in Egypt his spirit would reside with his fathers and that it would not have to undergo painful גלגולים, metamorphoses, before arriving in its rightful place in the celestial regions.
Rabbi Yitzchak claims that this verse teaches us that on the day a person dies he becomes aware of what destination he is headed for, whether he will be assigned to the region reserved for the righteous or the region reserved for the wicked. This is why Yaakov first said: “I will lie with my fathers,” and subsequently he asked Joseph to transport him there. He taught Joseph that even if one were to die on a boat or in a remote inaccessible island, one’s spirit would immediately head for the location assigned to it. We have been told that Rabbi Avohu saw the reward that was in store for him shortly before his death. The sages base this principle on Psalms 31,20: “How abundant is the good that You have in store for those who fear You, that You do in the full view of men for those that take refuge in You.” According to tradition when Rabbi Avohu was shown all the reward which was in store for him he was so overwhelmed that he could not help exclaiming: ‘is all this really in store for Avohu?!’ He immediately wished himself dead and began to recite the above quoted verse from Psalms.

This letter ו connects this with the beginning of the previous verse... Rashi explains right afterward that ושכבתי means dying. Accordingly, Yaakov should first have said he will die, and then say, “Please do not bury me in Egypt.” Thus Rashi explains, “This letter ו connects ...”

אנכי אעשה כדברך, “I will do this independently of swearing an oath. There is no need to place me under oath. [I believe that author uses the extraneous word אנכי as the reason for his exegesis. Ed.]

שכבתי וגו", sich niederlegen zu seinen Vätern ist nicht das örtlich in ihrer Nähe begraben werden, sondern ist der leiblich in die Erscheinung tretende Akt des Sterbens, wie האסף die seelische Seite dieses Aktes bedeutet. האסף: das Heimgehen der Seele in die Heimat der Seelen, שכב: das Niederlegen des Leibes auf die Erde, in deren gemeinsamen Schoß, wo immer auch sie begraben seien, die vorangegangenen Eltern ruhen.

אנכי אעשה כדבריך, “I am going to do in accordance with your instructions.” According to the Midrash, Yaakov’s request to be buried in the land of Canaan inspired Joseph to make the same request of his brothers when the time came for him to die. We find that Joseph indeed made his brothers swear that his remains would be taken with the Israelites at the time of the redemption, and Moses personally, was involved in locating his coffin which was carried with the Israelites for 40 years until eventually being interred near Sh’chem in the tribal territory of Ephraim, one of his sons. He used the same formula when making his request as had his father at the time. (Compare Genesis 50,24-26) The choice of the Torah describing Joseph’s response as “the words of” instead of simply “his request,” or something similar, is why Rashi (in Exodus 3,18) says that before Moses came to Egypt and introduced himself as the redeemer, G–d told him that the elders would listen to him as he introduced himself with the words: פקוד יפקוד, that Joseph had used at the time when he stood at his father’s deathbed and they spoke about the eventual redemption, long before even the enslavement had commenced. This was also the reason why Yaakov had used this formula for describing the redemption.

ושכבתי עם אבותי, “I wish to have my last resting place with my forefathers;” he referred to his grave. He realised that this could be done only if Joseph would transport his remains all the way to the cave of Machpelah. An alternate explanation: When using the words ושכבתי עם אבותי, Yaakov referred to being buried in Egypt, temporarily, whereas when adding: אל נא תקברני במצרים, he asked Joseph not to make his permanent grave in Egypt. This corresponds to what we have learned in the Talmud tractate Nazir 64: “if someone is found buried in a normal fashion, (but not in a graveyard) when transferring the corpse to a Jewish graveyard, he should take along a certain amount of the earth surrounding the corpse with it. When applied to Yaakov, this means that some Egyptian soil was taken with his corpse on his way to be deposited also in the cave of Machpelah. The Talmud there defines how much soil, (approx 3 fingers deep of earth). Yaakov too referred to this amount of Egyptian soil, when he said: ונשאתני ממצרים, “and carry me up from Egypt.”

ונשאתני ממצרים, when you will follow this procedure you will be able to carry me out of Egypt, for when the days of lying in state will have come to an end, people will no longer be in a state of sorrow over my passing, as we know from 50,4 ויעברו ימי בכיתו, and no one will protest if you will transport my remains to another country.

וקברתני בקבורתם, “and bury me in their burial vault.” Our sages used this verse to tell us that the righteous ought to arrange that they be buried alongside other righteous people. We have a verse in Kings II 13,21 describing that someone who had been thrown into a grave next to that of the prophet Elisha emerged resurrected through having contacted the remains of the prophet. This is also what the false prophet said before he died when he requested to be buried alongside the true prophet. He had said: “you shall bury me in the grave of the prophet.” According to this interpretation the temporary resurrection of the sinner in question served the purpose of preventing him remaining buried next to the righteous man, the true prophet Elisha. (Compare Sanhedrin 47 on details of this story.)

Put me to rest with my fathers in the cave... According to which it would mean actual burial. Rashi explains ושכבתי to mean השכיבני because ושכבתי implies putting oneself down to rest, whereas burial is done by others. Thus he also adds “in the cave,” since [in this explanation] ושכבתי עם אבותי means actual burial. Accordingly, the verse means: “Put me to rest [i.e., bury me] with my fathers in the cave.”

Actually, the Torah mentions Joseph's declaration as proof that he said he did not need to swear an oath, that his promise was sufficient.

כדברך, “as you have said.” The word is spelled without the letter י, i.e. in the singular mode.

אנכי אעשה כדברך, I will do this on my own, making every effort to fulfill your command.

I (anochi) will do as you say. Yoseif declined to place his hand under his father’s thigh on the grounds that it was beneath his dignity. Instead he indicated through his use of the more formal anochi rather than the more common ani that for a man of his station a mere promise was sufficient.

אנכי אעשה כדברך, “I will comply with what you have said.” According to the plain meaning of the text Joseph agreed to honor his father’s request. According to a Midrashic interpretation the words mean “just as you made me swear to bring your bones up to the land of Canaan, so I will make my brothers swear to do the same for my own bones when the time comes.”

Carry me from Egypt and bury me in their grave... Rashi is saying that there are two contradictions. 1.It should It should have written first, “Carry me out of Egypt,” and then, “I will lie,” since he must first be carried and only then buried. 2.“I will lie” is apparently repetitive because it is written afterward, “Bury me in their grave.”

Alternatively, he meant that he was legally obligated to comply with his father's request either by dint of being his father's son or by dint of his father's request being that of a man about to die (compare Choshen Mishpat 252,2). Joseph added the word כדברך to demonstrate that he would fulfil the request quite independent of any oath he would swear.

“And Dovid lay with his fathers” and afterwards: “And he was buried...” Perforce, the וישכב of Dovid means death. For if it meant burial, it would indicate that they buried him with his fathers, i.e., in Beis Lechem where Dovid’s fathers lived. But then it is written, “He was buried in the City of Dovid,” implying Tzion, which is the City of Dovid. Thus it must be that שכיבה means death.