Two Minute Torah Podcast

Vayehi 5770 by Rabbi Adam Kligfeld

Before his death, Yaakov makes one request of his son Yosef: to bury him not in the land of Egypt, but rather to take his remains to be buried in Canaan/Israel. Yakov describes such an act as chesed v'emet, translated roughly as an act of lovingkindness and truth. The Medieval commentator RaDaK (Rabbi David Kimchi) understood the "truth" of the request to refer to Yosef's basic obligation to bury his father, and the "lovingkindness" of the request to refer to the extraordinary act of bringing his remains to Canaan.

Earlier rabbis understood the concept even more creatively. The word emet is written aleph-mem-tav, which the rabbis read as an acronym for aron (coffin), mitah (bier) and takhrikhin (shrouds). This reading focuses on the many delicate and tender acts traditionally performed upon Jewish corpses, preparing them for burial. Such tenderness, which will never be directly repaid, is indeed a manifestation of true lovingkindness.

The concepts of truth and lovingkindness suffuse Jewish thought. Most of the associations relate not to our obligation to the dead, but rather to the living. This Biblical source for the concept should give us pause. When a Jew dies, we strip away layers of narcissism and act with great selflessness to bring honor and dignity to one who cannot repay our beneficence. Whether or not we personally are members of the chevra kadisha, the holy group of people who perform the tahara ceremony, preparing the deceased for burial, each of us, I am sure, responds to others' deaths without thinking about how our actions will accrue positively to us. In those moments, we act with chesed v'emet, true lovingkindness. A great human challenge, I think, is to put forth such values and principles not only to those who've passed, but also to those with whom we walk this earth, and share our lives.

Yaakov's request of his son has resonance for us only if in sharing life, and not just in honoring those who have died, we ourselves become reflections of chesed and emet.