Bereishit 48:7 "When I was coming from Padan, Rachel died on me... I buried her there on the way to Efrat...."
Q: Why did Yaakov say all this to Yosef? Did he want to give a hidden message to Yosef, a prediction to the passing into exile in the future? Or what was his purpose? Rashi brings up the connection, but I am not sure why this is told to Yosef by Yaakov.
It distressed Yosef that his father Yaakov did not see to it
that his mother, Rachel, be buried in the Cave of Machpelah where Yaakov was to
be buried.
Rashi explains it was so that Rachel would be a comfort to her children, and she
would cry and pray for G-d's mercy for them
(Yirmeyahu 31:14), when
Nevuchadnetzar drove them into exile and they would pass by where she was
buried..."on the road" which alludes to the future route of the exiles.
Ramban, however, derives a different justification for not burying Rachel in the
family tomb (Machpelah). He puts an emphasis on the fact that she died suddenly
"on the road."
Yaakov was struggling hard to take care of the needs of his large family and
extensive herds. While he was on the road, he lacked the appropriate means for
transferring the moral remains of his wife with the honor due her.
Ramban continues that these arguments put forward by Yaakov were only
outward reasons serving as excuses. The real reasons are on an entirely
different level...that Yaakov observed the Divine laws only on the sacred
ground of the Promised Land. Ramban holds that marriage to two sisters was
legal outside the land but not within it. Accordingly, the death of Rachel
(whom Yaakov married after marrying her sister) as soon as they entered the
Holy Land was an act of Providence (Ramban to VaYikra 18:25). And that it was
for this reason that Yaakov decided to bury Rachel "on the road to Efrat," and
not in the Cave of Machpelah, even though it was not far from where she had died
(Ramban to Bereishit 48:7). Leah, the one he married first, was to be buried in
the Cave of Machpelah. "He was ashamed in front of his ancestors to bury Rachel
there" (ibid.).
Therefore Yaakov could not accede to *Yosef's wish* (Pesikta Rabbasi) that the
remains of his mother be brought to the Cave of Machpelah.
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