All of the Hebrew former slaves to Pharaoh were scurrying through their homes, gathering their possessions in preparation for their march out of Egypt, toward freedom. Collecting their pots and pans, clothing, children, animals, their meager property, the Jews rushed to be ready to leave when the moment of liberation finally arrived. And Moses? What personal objects did he collect? "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.' "
While the other Jews strained to gather their things, Moses meticulously gathered the remains of the ancestor of the Jews, making sure that he brought Joseph's bones with him as he began the march to the Land of Israel.
The Midrash Mekhilta understands this care as a natural reflection of the greatness of both men involved. Just as Joseph oversaw the burial of his father, Jacob, in Israel, so he now deserved to have the same care taken with his remains. And, as a reward for caring for the bones of Joseph, Moses would earn having his remains cared for by none other than God!
Both men are great because they make their own desires secondary to the needs of their community and the commandments of God. How do we learn the proper way to relate to others? Are human beings intrinsically kind, thoughtful, patient and generous? Or are those values in need of social reinforcement and constant training?
The philosophers of the Enlightenment and Romantic period of the 18th and 19th Centuries asserted the inherent goodness of humanity and the consequent inevitability of progress. According to these European thinkers, each individual was originally noble and self-sacrificing in the state of nature. The constraints and burdens of civilization and religion corrupt that inherent goodness, producing competition, greed and cruelty. The obvious cure, then, is to leave people alone to pursue their own self-interest as they define it.
Judaism, in its traditional modes, never accepted that lovely delusion. Recognizing that people are neither intrinsically good nor intrinsically evil, Judaism insists that people must be taught what is good and how to embody that righteousness in their lives. The Torah and the Talmud contain a myriad of mitzvot, commanded deeds, which channel human energy toward compassion, justice and holiness. It is precisely through these teaching tools, inculcating the habit of discipline and morality, that we grow to be fully human, to reflect the divine image of God. We teach others how we want to be treated by offering them practical lessons through how we care for them. Not by imposing our own desires on others (which is really a form of ego-centrism and insensitivity -- doing to others what we would want done to ourselves) but by refraining from what we ourselves don't like: in the words of the first century sage, Hillel, "Don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you."
By treating others with respect, dignity and kindness, whether deserved or not, we demonstrate how human beings should be treated. Moses taught that lesson by taking the time to worry not about possessions but about human fidelity. He knew that the Jews had made an oath to Joseph. While some might argue that Joseph was dead, so promises to him are no longer important, Moses demonstrated that commitments to others don't stop at the grave.
And what had Joseph done to deserve this loyalty? The Mekhilta records that the ark carrying Joseph's bones was transported next to the ark containing the Ten Commandments. "The nations would say to the Israelites, "What is the importance of this coffin that it should go alongside of the ark of the Eternal One?" And the Israelites would say to them, "The one lying in this coffin has fulfilled that which is written on what lies in that ark."
Joseph, too, had filled his life with mitzvot. He demonstrated a fidelity to others by using his ability, energy, mind and heart to provide for the hungry during a terrible famine and by securing his family's safety at the same time. Through loyalty to the Ten Commandments, Joseph had made himself into a human replica of the two tablets. Deeds of goodness, acts of fidelity, embodiments of sanctity -- these are the building blocks of the Jewish tradition. And the stuff of which real people are made.
Shabbat Shalom.