Our portion, Beshalach, begins with a reminder of a promise made in the past:
And Moses took with him the bones of Joseph, who had exacted an oath from the children of Israel, saying, “God will be sure to take notice of you: then you shall carry up my bones from here with you.” (Exodus 13:19)
This is a callback to Joseph’s request that his body not remain in Egypt:
At length, Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. God will surely take notice of you and bring you up from this land to the land promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” So Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “When God has taken notice of you, you shall carry up my bones from here.” (Genesis 50:24-25)
“When God has taken notice of you,” well, that time has come.
That said, I have a few questions, as does the Gemara.
How does Moses know about this?
Where did Moses find Joseph’s bones?
Why did Moses take on this responsibility?
This is exactly what the Talmud asks on Sotah 13a:
And from where did Moses our teacher know where Joseph was buried?
The Sages said: Serah, the daughter of Asher, remained from that [first] generation. Moses went to her and said to her: Do you know anything about where Joseph is buried? She said to him: The Egyptians fashioned a metal casket for him and set it in the Nile [Nilus] River as an augury so that its water would be blessed.
Moses went and stood on the bank of the Nile. He said to Joseph: Joseph, Joseph, the time has arrived about which the Holy One, Blessed be He, took an oath saying that I, i.e., God, will redeem you. And the time for fulfillment of the oath that you administered to the Jewish people that they will bury you in Eretz Yisrael has arrived. If you show yourself, it is good, but if not, we are clear from your oath. Immediately, the casket of Joseph floated to the top of the water.
The sages offer one possible answer to the location of Joseph’s bones. Serach bat Asher, one of Jacob’s granddaughters, knows the answer. According to various midrashim, Serach is a constant companion of the Jewish people, living with them generation after generation. There is much to explore about her, but sufficed to say, she’d know where Joseph’s bones are.
In addition, if nothing else, she represents institutional knowledge about what happened at the beginning of this Egyptian sojourn. This knowledge being passed down would possibly be available to Moses at the time.
Serach relays to Moses that Joseph was utilized as a totem or amulet of some kind and was placed in the Nile. This makes sense narratively since he represented so much plenty and abundance.
So, Moses walks to the Nile and requests that Joseph show up so he can be taken out of Egypt or that the Jewish people are absolved of their obligation to him. Immediately, we’re told, his casket floats to the surface.
What?! His METAL casket floats?
The Talmud is ready for this one:
And do not wonder how iron can float, as it is written in the verses describing how Elisha was able to cause iron to float: “But as one was felling a beam, the ax head fell into the water; and he cried, and said: Alas, my master! For it was borrowed. And the man of God said: Where did it fall? And he showed him the place. And he cut down a stick, and cast it in there, and the iron floated up” (II Kings 6:5–6).
And are these matters not inferred a fortiori [a kal v’homer analogy]: And just as Elisha, who was a mere student of Elijah, and Elijah was a mere student of Moses, as Elijah studied the Torah of Moses, was able to cause the iron to float before him, all the more so would it float before Moses our teacher himself.
Elisha used some form of magic, to float an axe head. Since he was a student of Elijah, and Elijah was a student of Torah, the Torah of Moses. If Elisha could do it, Moses could definitely do it.
Regardless of whether or not we think this is “really” possible, I’m fascinated by the willingness to accept that this is how the universe might work. Does this mean that we, students of Torah, have access to these powers? How does this conflict, or not, with injunctions against magic and sorcery by the Torah elsewhere?
The Alternative to Serach
The Talmud knows that this suggestion of Serach might not work for everyone. So it offers an alternative:
Rabbi Natan says: Joseph was buried in the crypt [kabbarnit] of kings.
Moses went and stood by the crypt of kings and said: Joseph, the time has arrived about which the Holy One, Blessed be He, took an oath saying that: I will redeem you. And the time for fulfillment of the oath that you administered to the Jewish people that they will bury you in Eretz Yisrael has arrived. If you show yourself, it is good, but if not, we are clear from your oath. At that moment, the casket of Joseph shook among the caskets. Moses took it and brought it over to himself.
Here we get nearly the same story. Instead of Serach, Joseph was buried with other Egyptians of power. Instead of floating, Joseph’s casket shakes.
Instead of a story of institutional knowledge held within the people, we see Joseph as [purposefully?] assimilating with Egyptians to protect his people, but ultimately unwilling to separate himself from his people.
While he might have been buried in Egypt amongst his fellow elite, he wasn’t truly one of them.
Why Moses?
Later on the page, the Talmud asks, why weren’t Joseph’s descendants taking on this responsibility? Why Moses? This section ends with this:
The Gemara answers: They said: Leave Joseph for others. It is more of an honor for Joseph to be buried by the many than by the few, and therefore it is better that the Jewish people be involved in the burial.
And furthermore [alternatively], they said: Leave Joseph for others. It is more of an honor for Joseph to be buried by one of the great men like Moses than by lesser ones like us.
The argument being made here and elsewhere is that we’re seeking to honor Joseph, but there isn’t agreement on how to do that. On one side, Joseph’s importance should be observed by a great many people. The more people, the greater the honor.
On the other side, Moses’ authority, power, greatness, and celebrity honors Joseph rather than the rabble, the rest of us.
However, there’s a problem:
The verses contradict each other, as it is written: “And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him” (Exodus 13:19), and it is written elsewhere: “And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt” (Joshua 24:32). Who in fact took Joseph’s bones?
Moses doesn’t make it to the land of Israel. He literally cannot fulfill the obligation on his own. Instead, the people themselves have to take it into the land themselves.
So, in some ways, the answer is both, many and few people honor Joseph.
And here’s how this discussion ends:
Rabbi Ḥama, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, says: Anyone who performs a matter but does not complete it, and then another comes and completes it, the verse ascribes credit to the one who completed it as if he had actually performed the entire act. Due to the fact that the children of Israel completed Joseph’s burial, the Torah ascribes them credit as if they had performed the entire act.
We learn from Rabbi Hama, the son of Rabbi Hanina, that the people get the credit for what Moses started. More than that, those of us who complete the task get credit for the task itself. (Do you think this works for washing the dishes?)
We also know from Pirkei Avot:
[Rabbi Tarfon] used to say: It is not your responsibility to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.
I think, together, these two texts remind us that doing our part is enough.
We don’t have to start the task or necessarily finish it, but we have to engage with it. We must do what we can to move the task, toward completion.
We are each receiving and then handing the baton to the next person down the line. In life, in work, and in Torah.
This is represented by the obligation of Joseph’s bones.
It could have been easily forgotten in Egypt. Moses didn’t originally take this on, but he knew it would fall on him, and the People afterward. Serach, her longevity, presence, and the institutional knowledge she represents help us remember that our task as humans is not merely within our lifetime.
Our task of making the world a better place is always coming from our ancestors before us, and handed off to our descendants after us.
We honor the effort and lives of those who preceded us, not just in the moment of their deaths, but we carry their wisdom with us, spiritually from nation to nation, from generation to generation, and from person to person.