Jacob's Final Wishes
As Jacob’s days drew to a close, he called his son Joseph to his side.
“My son,” he said, “I have one final request. Do for me chesed v’emet—kindness and truth. Do not bury me in Egypt.”
Joseph nodded. “I will do as you say, Father.”
“Swear to it,” Jacob insisted.And Joseph, solemn and resolute, vowed to fulfill his father’s dying wish.
At first glance, it seems a simple request. But Jacob’s words, carefully chosen, merit closer inspection. He asks his son for chesed v’emet—kindness and truth. On the surface, these seem like opposites: chesed, the generosity of a freely given favor, and emet, the weight of truth, the obligation that binds us to our word. How could one act embody both?
The Sages suggested that the mitzvah of burying the dead transcends all other acts of kindness. It is chesed shel emet—true kindness. Why? Because the deceased can never repay you. It is a favor given without expectation of return, a pure act of love.
But the Maggid of Dubno offered an alternative explanation.
As Jacob’s days drew to a close, he called his son Joseph to his side.
Joseph nodded. “I will do as you say, Father.”
“Swear to it,” Jacob insisted.
And Joseph, solemn and resolute, vowed to fulfill his father’s dying wish.
The Promissory Note
Ezra was a man of means, quite comfortable with his wealth. He had a friend, a good man but one who was drowning in debt. Ezra wanted to help his friend, but there was a problem. His wife.
She wasn’t unkind, but she kept a tight grip on their finances and had little patience for what she saw as charity cases. If she caught wind of Ezra’s plans to help, she would put an end to it at once.
So, Ezra hatched a plan. He called two witnesses into his study and, before their eyes, signed a promissory note: in three months, he would pay his friend ten thousand dollars.
Now, it was no longer charity. This was a legal obligation. His wife, formidable as she was, could not dispute it.
Ezra’s act embodied both kindness and truth. His heart was moved by chesed. But by binding himself legally, he also created a commitment—emet. It was a promise that could not be easily undone.
Joseph's Oath
Jacob knew that Joseph, his beloved son, would naturally want to honor his father’s dying wish. But he also knew Pharaoh. And Pharaoh, ruler of Egypt, would not allow the embalmed body of his viceroy’s father to be buried far away in Canaan.
Unless Joseph could say, “I gave my word. I swore an oath. I have no choice.”
And indeed, when the time came, Joseph stood before Pharaoh and spoke plainly: “My father bound me with an oath.”
Pharaoh mindful of law and obligation, had no choice but to grant the request. “Go. Bury your father as you swore.”
Jacob formulated his request with wisdom. It was for an act of chesed—a son’s love for his father. But by making Joseph swear, he made sure it also carried the weight of emet— a binding obligation.
Much like the wealthy man's financial gift, which was both kindness and duty, Jacob’s final wish was kindness wrapped in an obligation, allowing Joseph to honor his father by burying him in the ancestral cave that Abraham had purchased in Hebron.
