“And Yaakov called for his son Yosef and said to him, ”If I have found favor in your eyes, please place your hand (in oath) under my thigh and perform kindness and truth on my behalf by not burying me in Mitzrayim. And I will rest with my fathers. And you will bury me in their gravesite.’ And Yosef replied, ‘I will do as you say’. And he said, ‘Swear to me’, and he swore to him…” (Bereshis 47:29-31)

Rashi (on v. 29, from Bereshis Rabbah) explains that Yaakov called specifically on Yosef to handle this task of burial in Me’aras Ha-Machpelah, as Yosef (due to his position in Egypt) had the unique ability to accomplish it.  

Shortly after reading the above passage about Yaakov adjuring Yosef to bury him in Me’aras Ha-Machpelah, we again read about Yaakov instructing that he be buried there: “And Yaakov commanded his sons, saying, ‘I am about to be gathered unto my nation; bury me with my fathers, at the cave which is in the field of Ephron…which Avrohom purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial plot. There did they bury Avrohom and his wife Sarah; there did they bury Yitzchak and his wife Rivkah; and there did I bury Leah…’” (Bereshis 49:29-31)

Why did Yaakov, immediately before his death, command all of his sons to bury him in Me’aras Ha-Machpelah? Yaakov already had an agreement with Yosef to handle this mission, and Yaakov was aware that someone without Yosef’s clout may not be able to get it done. Thus, what was the purpose for this apparently redundant command, especially in light of the fact that the B’nei Yaakov other than Yosef would likely not have the power to fulfill it anyway?

Yaakov was aware of the hardship that burial in Eretz Yisroel would involve, and he was sensitive to it. Rashi (on ibid. 47:29, from Bereshis Rabbah), when explaining Yaakov’s discussion with Yosef, notes that Yaakov felt compelled to be buried in Eretz Yisroel for several reasons (e.g. the dirt of Mitzrayim would turn into lice, Yaakov would likely become the subject of idolatry if his gravesite were to be in Egypt, etc.); absent from Yaakov’s discussion with Yosef about why burial should be in Eretz Yisroel was the fact that Me’aras Ha-Machpelah was Yaakov’s ancestral gravesite, where his grandparents and Leah were interred, and that the plot was an eternal purchase for B’nei Yisroel from B’nei Cheis. Yaakov apparently did not mention these factors when commanding Yosef to bury him in Eretz Yisroel, as important as they were, because the hardship of trekking there and back to Mitzrayim and the anticipated opposition of Pharaoh were evident. Yaakov felt that he could not impose upon Yosef the task of burial in Me’aras Ha-Machpelah unless there was an absolute necessity, and he therefore presented different reasons, which did not leave burial in Egypt as an option.

We can now understand why Yaakov instructed his sons, in an apparently redundant command that they could likely not fulfill, that he be buried in Eretz Yisroel, and why he explained to his sons that he needed to be buried in Me’aras Ha-Machpelah because it was the resting place of his family and was their permanent ancestral plot, rather than providing the pragmatic reasons that he related to Yosef. Yaakov did not command his sons to bury him in Eretz Yisroel for his own sake; he did so for their sake. Please allow me to explain.

Yaakov saw that Jewish life in Goshen was attractive and pleasant, and he likewise knew that it would not always be that way, for his descendants would suffer harsh slavery. One who undergoes such a negative and bitter experience as did our enslaved ancestors normally seeks for life to return to the way it was prior to the downturn. This may involve settlement in a new location, entering a new type of profession or trade, and other adjustments to life as it was in the good old days, but the basic idea is to return to how things were and to do so with minimal disruption.

Yaakov was aware that B’nei Yisroel, upon liberation from slavery, could readily seek a return to a free life in Goshen, or that they could enter Eretz Yisroel with the mindset that it was a haven that would be the closest thing to the good life in the Goshen of old. Yaakov knew that for his descendants to potentially harbor such sentiments was totally wrong, as Eretz Yisroel was not to serve as a mere refuge, but as the longed-for Land of kedushah which Hashem promised to Avrohom and Yitzchak as an eternal inheritance and as the place where B’nei Yisroel needed to reside not simply for pragmatic purposes but for spiritual ones.

Yaakov commanded his sons to bring him to burial in Eretz Yisroel for their sake – so that their descendants for the generations to come would recall the hardship of Yaakov’s sons trekking to Me’aras Ha-Machpelah and the imperative that it be done in the face of seeming impossibility - for Eretz Yisroel is the place where they had to long to be, and not merely view as a practical place of safety after liberation. This is why, when speaking to his sons, did Yaakov emphasize that he needed to be buried in Me’aras Ha-Machpelah because it was the ancestral gravesite of the Avos and Imahos, for he sought to impress upon his later descendants and instill in them the importance of Eretz Yisroel, even as he knew that it would be very difficult to arrange for burial there and that it may seem impossible in the absence of Yosef. Yaakov taught B’nei Yisroel to long for Ge’ulah in Eretz Yisroel, and that the fact that Me’aras Ha-Machpelah was the gravesite of his ancestors and Leah justified the extreme hardship of his burial there.

“Yaakov Avinu lo meis” -  “Yaakov our forefather has not died“. (Rashi on 49:33, from Taanis 5b) Yaakov, who embodies the Jew in Golus and in Ge’ulah, in suffering and in simchah, continues forever to lead us and to teach us how to live throughout all phases of Jewish existence.