The significance of being buried in Israel |
In Parshat Vayigash we learn that
seventy souls moved down to Egypt (Goshen) as immigrants. They acquired property,
were fruitful and increased greatly. It seems like B’nai Yisrael (Yaakov’s
children) did very well in Egypt. They adjusted to their new surroundings and
even became wealthy. Despite what may have sounded like
good news, in Parshat Vayechi Yaakov was worried about too much of a good
thing. He was afraid that his descendents would become so prosperous in galut
(the Diaspora) that they would lose their connection to the Land of Israel. When Yaakov gave Yosef the blessing
that God had blessed him with in Luz, he added two extra words: that the Land
of Israel would be given for an “everlasting possession.” Nehama Leibowitz points out that “Yaakov
deliberately added those words as a significant antidote to his children’s acclimatization
and acquiring holdings in the land of Egypt. This was as if to say that the
foothold they had acquired in Egypt was illusory; their permanent holding was
the land promised to them by God.” In order to ensure that they would
remain connected to the Land of Israel, immediately before his death, Yaakov imposed
upon his children the importance of being buried in the Land of Israel. According to Nechama Leibowitz, “Yaakov
did not want to be buried in Egypt in order to preclude his children from (permanently)
settling there.” B’nai Yisrael honored their father’s
wishes and buried Yaakov in the Land of Israel. When Moshe and B’nei Yisrael left
Egypt, they took Yosef’s bones and he was eventually buried in the Land of Israel
as well. What about Yaakov’s other children?
Where were they buried? Ramban (Breisheet 34:12) quotes the
Mechilta (Shmot 13:19) which states that B’nai Yisrael brought up Dinah’s bones
together with the bones of her brothers-
all of the tribes to be buried in the Land of Israel. Throughout Jewish history there have
been Jews from around the world who requested to be buried in Israel. Yet the
ideal should be to connect with Israel while we are still alive and ensure that
Israel remains the everlasting possession of the Jewish people.
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