Vayechi - Sh'vi'i

What's the Password?

Yoseif assured his brothers that they had nothing to fear; he would continue to care for them and their families.

Yoseif lived to be 110; he lived to see grandchildren and great-grandchildren. When he was near death, he said that G-d would surely return the nation of Israel to their homeland. He asked that, when this happened, his remains be brought there for burial. When he died, Yoseif was embalmed and interred in a sarcophagus.

The words "pakod yifkod" ("G-d will surely remember") in verse 24 are the same words used by Moshe in Exodus 3:16. It was because of the use of this phrase, communicated by Yoseif on his deathbed to his brothers, that the Elders of the nation recognized Moshe as the one who would lead them out of Egypt.

Author: Rabbi Jack Abramowitz