Kesubos 111a
Why Yaakov and Yosef Both Asked Not to Be Buried in Egypt
Part of Ein Yaakov · 12:36
Compares techiyas hameisim for tzaddikim in Eretz Yisrael versus the diaspora, Yaakov's and Yosef's requests to be carried out of Mitzrayim, and the story of Reb Berel Wolf's embalming concerns.
Audio Transcript
have, no, מ\"ח, סימן מ\"ח. We're talking about תחיית המתים and what makes the difference between the the people who are in Eretz Yisrael, they will be תחיית המתים right away and the the tzadikim from Chutz La'aretz will have to go through מחילות, go through certain caves and come to Eretz Yisrael, and come up in Eretz Yisrael. So the Gemara, pasuk says: ונשאתני ממצרים. They're going to roll and not come here. Well, and that's the thing. The לשון at first it says rolling, then it said מחילות. Now, Rashi uses a לשון גלגול מחילות. גלגול מחילות means rolling in the tunnels. But the Gemara doesn't say. The Gemara just says, first the Gemara said they're going to roll. גלגול for the tzadikim? It's a tza'ar. Why don't they make מחילות? Mashma caves to walk. Walk. That they'll be able to walk through, they won't have to roll. But it's not clear, so. But Rashi Chumash on this next pasuk, the pasuk we're going to Gemara it's takeh it says גלגול מחילות. In Mishpatim? I think so, the next six parashiyot. Whatever, well, in Vayechi, right in the beginning of Vayechi. So the pasuk
says Yaakov made Yosef swear that when he dies: ונשאתני ממצרים, you shall carry me out of מצרים, וקברתני בקבורתם, and you shall bury me in the grave where my ancestors are, where Yitzchak and Avraham. אמר Karna, so Karna said: דברים בגו. There's something special here. There's some some things that he's saying here. What does he mean? ידע היה יעקב אבינו שצדיק גמור היה, Yaakov Avinu knew he was a צדיק גמור. ואם מתים שבחוץ לארץ חיים, and the Gemara said before that even the metim of chutz la'aretz, those who are dead in chutz la'aretz, will also get up, למה הטריח את בניו? So why did he tell them to carry him to Eretz Yisrael if he's going to get up? Mimela if you say if in chutz la'aretz you don't get up, so he wanted to be buried in Eretz Yisrael, but we just said the Gemara before that they will also get up. So why did he want he was מטריח his children to take him out? שלא יקבל עליו צער מחילות. He didn't want to have the tza'ar of the מחילות. As much as it's not as bad, but it's still not the same as being in Eretz Yisrael. Does he have other reasons? Huh? Rashi brings other reasons. One of the reasons is this and takes from this Gemara. He didn't want the כינים to crawl on him, and he didn't want that the Mitzrayim should make him into a god, because they know that his berachah was the one that brought the Nilus and stopped the hunger, so they would make him into a god and make it avodah zarah. כיוצא בדבר אתה אומר, we find something similar. It says: וישבע יוסף את בני ישראל, יוסף made the Yidden, his brothers swear that when they go out of Mitzrayim in years to come, they should remember to take him out.
אמר רב חנינא, so Rav Chanina said the same thing: דברים בגו. There are things here. There is something special here. ידע היה יוסף בעצמו שצדיק גמור היה, יוסף knew he was a צדיק גמור. And the question, the same question: ואם מתים שבחוץ לארץ חיים, even if even the metim of chutz la'aretz also will become alive, למה הטריח את אחיו, so why did he מטריח his brothers to schlep him later ד' מאות פרסה, 400 פרסה. Why 400 פרסה? I guess because Eretz Mitzrayim was 400 פרסה. So I guess from the Nilus till the place where they had to go they had to schlep him. So the answer is שלא יקבל עליו צער מחילות, the same reason. He didn't want to have the tza'ar of going through the מחילות. This doesn't answer The question is: They're going to become alive and then go through the מחילות? No, no, no. Well, first they're in מחילות. No, they won't come out Maybe they'll become alive, they'll just go under, walk under and come out. But they'll only come out in Eretz Yisrael. They'll become alive in ארץ ישראל or they I don't know, probably before. Because if if it's rolling, if it's not rolling, if it's walking then then it has to be alive. Now, if it's rolling, then the Eibershter will make them roll. That their the skeletons or their bones will roll and then they'll come out. But the Gemara is going to say later that they're going to be מבצבץ ויוצא, they're going to pop out from from ארץ ישראל. But what I'm saying is something else. But you see, both had the same kavanah, Yaakov and Yosef. Nevertheless, Yaakov wanted they should take him out right away, and Yosef was enough that if they take him out later, for the same reason. That's probably one of the reasons why Rashi brings another reason. By Yaakov, it says why did he want them to take him out? It says three reasons. One of them is because of of being in חוץ לארץ. That's good enough reason. Why does Rashi need two more reasons? Because he didn't want the kinim, because this reason is not good enough. Why can't they bury him in that in in Mitzrayim, and then when they leave 200 years later, they'll take him out, just like they did by Yosef? A siman there was another reason. Didn't they worship Yosef at some fashion? Worship him? No, they took his box, put him in a metal box and they put him into the Nilos. Went all the way down. That's why Moshe when he had to get him out had a problem. So, he threw in the note that said עלה שור and then just came up. What if he can't go? Huh? מה שאין כן יעקב is embalmed. They couldn't make him into getshke. No, they embalmed Yosef, too. They embalmed Yosef, too, it says, \"ויחנטו אותו\". Yes, they put him in the river. Yeah. I mean like getshke, cuz his kever would have been a getshke. Even if he was buried, his kever would become a kever of like a god. It's one of the reasons it says why ולא ידע איש את קבורתו by Moshe Rabbeinu. Shouldn't make Cuz the Yidden would have made him, I mean, leave out the goyim, there it was the goyim, here the Yidden would have. But halachically, were they allowed to be embalmed? Huh? Halachically was I I'm sure they were allowed. Otherwise, they wouldn't do it. Cuz who had who who made that he should Yaakov should be embalmed? Yosef. Obviously, it was he told him the Cuz it was before מתן תורה? Yeah. It's like Anyway, yeah, and anyway, these are tzadikim that they their body wouldn't decompose anyway. So then what was the purpose? דרך הטבע. The whole reason why don't we embalm? Because we have to live לעפר עפר אתה ואל עפר תשוב. Should go back to afar, but they don't come back to afar anyway. It says that tzadikim a minute before תחיית המתים, they will become back to afar. And there were tzadikim, not davka Yaakov Avinu, tzadikim from later later generations that they found that their body was complete. I
always tell the story, my zayde told me he was there in Katerynoslav when they took out Reb Berel Wolf. Reb Berel Wolf was the rav in Katerynoslav. He was a chasid of the Tzemach Tzedek. He was the rav in Katerynoslav before the Rebbe's father, but it was about 20 years in between. And they died. Then the government was going to make a a park in that headquarters. I think a park they were going to make. So they took out there were two rabbanim there that were 25 years. There was a chasidisher rav, Reb Berel Wolf, cousin of, and then there was a misnagedisher rav. And my zayde was by he told me he was by that second levayah. He was there when the Rebbe's father was the one that took care of everything, told them exactly what to do. And he saw they took out the body. From they took out both, they took out the body of this Reb Berel Wolf. ס'איז געווען גאנץ, 25 years, it was גאנץ. And the old people who remembered 25 years earlier the levayah, said it was exactly the way they put him in. The second half is the other one was completely decomposed. He was? The other rav. Oh, yeah. Completely. And if embalming embalming includes, they have to take out the inner organs. I don't know. We don't know exactly how they did it. 40 days it took. Now it's done like that, I don't know if it was done like that then. And and this is before Matan Torah, it's all death all death is just together. They're going to turn into dust right before techiyat hametim? That's what you're saying? זאגט די Gemara ווייטער: שלחו ליה אחוה לרבה, a brother of רבה sent him, and he sent him this message, that הוה ידע, ידע יעקב דצדיקא גמירא הוא, the same thing, that יעקב knew he was a צדיק, so why did he ask him to take him out? Because he didn't want the צער of the מחילות of the going through the caves. אילפא אילפא מוסיף בה דברים, and he told him that אילפא would add something here, this is what he would add:
מעשה באחד, there was a story with this man, שהיה מצטער על אשה אחת, there was a certain woman that he wanted to marry. He lived in ארץ ישראל, this woman lived in חוץ לארץ, וביקש לירד, and he wanted to go down to חוץ לארץ to marry her. כיון ששמע כזאת, when he heard this about יעקב אבינו that he didn't he didn't want to be buried in חוץ לארץ because he didn't want to have this צער, גלגל בעצמו עד יום מותו, so he didn't care till the day he died, he gave up the idea of marrying this woman. marry her and then move. Huh? Could have married her and then moved. Yeah. I guess she didn't want to go! I guess that's all, she didn't want to go. And the דין is she has to go, but if she doesn't want you could you have to divorce her. That's obvious, she didn't want. And then he added, אף על פי שחכם גדול אתה, even if you're a big חכם, אינו דומה לומד מעצמו ללומד מרבו. He said that what he wants to say is he should come up to ארץ ישראל, because in ארץ ישראל you could he said to him, you'll be able to learn from a Rabbi, even though you can learn yourself. ואם תאמר אין לך רב, you'll say, well, I don't have a rav in ארץ ישראל that would be able to teach me, יש לך רב, ומנו רבי יוחנן. ואם אין אתה עולה, but if you don't go up, he said to him, הזהר בג' דברים. Be careful with three things.
One thing is, אל תרבה בישיבה, don't sit too much, שהישיבה קשה לתחתניות. If you keep on sitting, you know, it's it's no good for for think I'm looking, I think hemorrhoids, or I don't know what what sickness it is. ואל תרבה בעמידה, but don't stand too much either, שהעמידה קשה ללב, because standing too much is no good for the heart. ואל תרבה בהליכה, don't walk too much, שהליכה קשה לעינים. Walking is no good for the eyes. So what should you do? Shouldn't sit, shouldn't stand, shouldn't walk? Too much! אלא שליש בעמידה, a third of the time stand, שליש בישיבה, a third time sit, and שליש בהילוך, and and to be and a third of the time walk. And then he says, כל ישיבה שאינה מסמיכה, any time you sit that you don't lean, how was it, you don't have handles or you don't lean, עמידה ניחא מינה, it's better to stand. פרעגט די Gemara: עמידה סלקא דעתך? Why is it better to stand? והא אמרת, didn't you say עמידה קשה ללב, it's not good to stand? אלא he says, אלא ישיבה שאין בה סמיכה, sitting that you don't have what to lean on, עמידה שיש בה סמיכה נוחה הימנה, standing with having what to lean on is better. So he gave him three advices just for that. You have to figure out what's the connection. He says, come to ארץ ישראל, and you have a rabbi, if you don't have a rabbi, if you don't want to come then I'll give you these three. These are three gashmiyusdige inyanim, they must have some kind of connection. Yeah. Maharsha says something else, he says the לשון, Gemara says when he heard that he need gilgul mechilot, so he didn't want to go to ארץ ישראל, חוץ לארץ, and וגלגל בעצמו עד יום מותו. He didn't marry her till the day he died. But why does it say the לשון גלגול? It says the same לשון, that instead of having the gilgul mechilot, he decided better to have gilgul now, which means gilgul mechilot is a tza'ar, so not marrying her was also a tza'ar. But he felt that the tza'ar of not marrying this woman that he wants to marry is worth rather than having the tza'ar of the gilgul mechilot when Mashiach, what, by תחיית המתים. Okay, we'll stop here. They're worried about tza'ar? Why are they worried about tza'ar? A tzadik is worried about tza'ar, and they say mekabel b'ahavah. Huh? Now,
he's asking a good kashya, the tzadik is worried about tza'ar? It must be a צער רוחני. Must be not on צער גשמי. This gashmiyut is a צער גשמי. He's concerned about tza'ar, the tza'ar of marrying this woman, too. But that's a that's a statement on his— Did he marry another woman? It's a statement on his madregah because he'd have less tza'ar if he was a higher, if he was... No, whatever it says, it must be a צער רוחני to go through the גלגול מחילות, and not דווקא צער גשמי. Why do they need a kaparah, they need a cleansing? No, it's not a tza'ar for a cleansing, it's a tza'ar because they live in חוץ לארץ, they're buried in חוץ לארץ. So they go through this in this world so they don't have any tza'ar in the next world. You don't take it upon yourself if you can avoid it. You don't make yourself tza'ar. So why should they have any tza'ar? They should have... I know, but they will. If they'll be in חוץ לארץ, they will. That's already, yeah. That's nothing to do with them, that the nature of the thing.