{"id":40404,"date":"2018-09-18T00:08:56","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T21:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=40404"},"modified":"2022-04-12T18:07:31","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T15:07:31","slug":"jacob-takes-leave-of-joseph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/jacob-takes-leave-of-joseph\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacob Takes Leave of Joseph"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The parting between Jacob and Joseph occupies this entire chapter of 22 verses, while Jacob\u2019s parting from his eleven other sons (chapter 49) takes up only 28 verses altogether. Quantity does not always outweigh quality but it does invite comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

To me, Jacob\u2019s most illuminating remark to Joseph is: \u201cI never expected to see your face again, yet God has enabled me to see even your children\u201d (48:11). The key to Jacob\u2019s prolonged parting from Joseph is the sheer unexpectedness of it all. During the 22 years of Joseph\u2019s absence from home, Jacob surely had ample time to observe his remaining sons and come to reasonable and long-lasting conclusions about their character strengths and weaknesses. All of these find expression in the terse\u2014albeit poignant\u2014observations that characterize his last will and testament to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joseph, however, not to mention his sons, reached maturity outside of Jacob\u2019s ken. Hence, all of their activities and proclivities came as a welcome surprise to him, evoking the sort of expansive, hyperbolic commentary that so often, in our observation of human experience, accompanies astonishment.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Sidebar<\/span>: <\/span>Rachel\u2019s Tomb<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Jacob\u2019s reference to his burial of Rachel \u201con the way to Efrat, that\u2019s Bethlehem\u201d (48:7) uses the qualifier <\/span>kivrat eretz<\/span><\/em>, a term that Rashi interpreted to mean a considerable distance and with which interpretation Nahmanides initially agreed.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, upon his arrival in the Land of Israel (in 1267), Nahmanides discovered for himself that Rachel\u2019s tomb was situated in Bethlehem proper, prompting him to acknowledge his error and revise his commentary.<\/span><\/p>\n

With all due deference to Nahmanides\u2019s willingness to admit his initial mistake, we need not necessarily infer from this that his final interpretation is correct. Indeed, 1 Samuel 10:2 places Rachel\u2019s tomb on the Benjamin-Judah border north (!) of Jerusalem, a problem already considered by the Midrash (Bereishit Rabbah 82).<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":103944,"id":103944,"title":"-625595a1ee007--625595a1ee00agen48-time to say goodbye farewell.jpg","filename":"625595a1ee007-625595a1ee00agen48-time-to-say-goodbye-farewell.jpg.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/cetwpuploads.blob.core.windows.net\/wp929\/uploads\/2018\/09\/625595a1ee007-625595a1ee00agen48-time-to-say-goodbye-farewell.jpg.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/jacob-takes-leave-of-joseph\/625595a1ee007-625595a1ee00agen48-time-to-say-goodbye-farewell-jpg\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"625595a1ee007-625595a1ee00agen48-time-to-say-goodbye-farewell-jpg","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":40404,"date":"2022-04-12 15:07:13","modified":"2022-11-22 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