Two Minute Torah Podcast

Beshallah 5773 by Rabbi Mordechai Silverstein

As you might recall, Joseph, on his deathbed, charged his brothers with the responsibility for bringing his bones up with them when the children of Israel finally left Egypt. When the time came, generations after Joseph's death, how were the children of Israel to find Joseph's bones? According to the Mechilta de Rabbi Ishmael, a midrash from the period of the Mishnah, nobody knew where Joseph was buried, except for one elderly woman, Serah bat Asher, who had survived from the time of Joseph. She told Moshe that Joseph's bones were to be found at the bottom of the Nile River, where the Egyptians had hidden them so that the children of Israel would never be able to leave Egypt since they could not leave without his bones.

How did the children of Israel retrieve Joseph's bones? Moshe approached the Nile and called out: "Yosef son of Yaakov, the time of God's promise to redeem His people has come. Joseph's coffin rose to the surface of the Nile and Moshe took it. [After Moshe received the Torah at Sinai], the children of Israel carried Joseph's coffin alongside the Ark of the Covenant containing the Ten Commandments. When people would ask the Israelites: 'What is in those two chests?' The Israelites would respond: "One contains the words of the revelation from God and the other is a coffin with a body in it.' The nations, astounded that a corpse would be carried alongside the ark containing the Ten Commandments, responded: "What is so special about the one in that coffin that it is being carried next to God's word?' The Israelites answered: 'The one in that coffin fulfilled in his life that which is written on God's revealed tablets.' (adapted from Mechilta de Rabbi Ishmael Beshallah, Horowitz - Rabin ed. pp. 78-80)

While obviously this story is historically fanciful, its message is actually quite profound. Joseph, according to this midrash, lived his life fulfilling the words of the Torah. This merited him in his death to lead, alongside the Ark of the Covenant, the children of Israel on their journey out of Egypt. Why? It is because a person who abides by God's Torah has the same sanctity as the Torah itself. Each of us, then, if we emulate Joseph's model, has this same opportunity. This is not a chance to be missed.