I swear – this isn’t so simple! Before Ya’akov dies, he makes Yosef swear that he will not bury him in Egypt, but will return him to Eretz Yisrael. Strangely enough, this comes after Yosef has already agreed to his father’s request. But apparently, that’s not good enough for Ya’akov; Yosef must take an official oath!
Later, in Ya’akov’s last moments, he is careful to tell all of his sons that he must be buried in Me’arat HaMachpelah. The Torah frames this request, too, in command form: “Vaychal Ya’akov l’tzavot et banav.” Again we might ask, why is it necessary to use such strong language?
Still later, it is Yosef’s turn, as his life draws to an end, to administer an oath to his own siblings to eventually carry him out of Egypt: “God will take you from here to the Land sworn to Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya’akov; and Yosef made them swear, saying, take my bones out of here!” Where is the trust, I ask you? Isn’t a dying man’s request sufficient? Why must it be bound up by an official oath?
Some commentators suggest that everyone feared that Paro might invoke “executive privilege” and try to keep the Hebrew family from leaving Egypt; after all, they were celebrated, national heroes – at least at this stage.
But I suggest that there is something else going on here. Ya’akov and Yosef were much more afraid of human nature – Jewish human nature – than of Paro. They understood all too well the pervasive grip of the galut, the enchanting enticement of the Exile, the seductive draw of the Diaspora. They knew it would not be a simple thing for their family to accept having to leave their homes and make the momentous move to Israel.
And so they wisely insisted on invoking a sacred promise from their family, an immutable vow to pick up and come to Israel.
As it was then, so it remains to this day: Jews grow accustomed to their place – wherever it may be – and then must be literally dragged out of the nations in which they find themselves. This is true when the sojourn is pleasant – like in America or Australia – but equally true when the signs of doom are everywhere, such as they were in pre-war Poland – which the Jews whimsically called “Poh-Lan-Ya” (“Here God dwells”) – or even in Germany, where Jews refused to believe that such a “civilized” country could turn on its own citizens and preside over a Holocaust.
No wonder, in describing the attractive Jewish life in Egypt, the pasuk in last week’s parsha says: “Vayay-achazu vah,” Bnei Yisrael were grabbed by life in Goshen, i.e. they were held fast in a Venus fly-trap-like grasp. Once inside, it took a miracle to extricate them!
Ya’akov and Yosef were incredibly smart; they knew how hard it would be to extricate the Jews when the time came for them to leave. So they resorted to the power of Jewish law and invoked a sacred, binding oath: “Take me back to Israel, our home.” Period, end of story.
Now how does THAT grab you?
Rabbi Stewart Weiss is director of the Jewish Outreach Center of Ra’anana and a member of Mizrachi’s Speakers Bureau (mizrachi.org/speakers).
The RZA-Mizrachi is a broad Religious Zionist organization without a particular political affiliation.
