“Forty days were completed for him, as so are the days of embalming completed. Egypt wept for him for seventy days” (Genesis 50:3). “The days of his weeping passed, and Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s household, saying: Please, if I have found favor in your eyes, please, speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying” (Genesis 50:4). “Forty days were completed for him…the days of his weeping passed” – here it says: “The days of his weeping passed,” but elsewhere it says: “The days of weeping of the mourning of Moses concluded” (Deuteronomy 34:8).
It is, rather, that Moses, because he did not have others weeping, it is written in his regard “concluded.” But Jacob, because he had others weeping,19When Jacob was carried to Canaan for burial, the residents of Canaan joined in mourning him. it is written in his regard: “The days of his weeping passed.” “Joseph spoke [to Pharaoh’s household]” – to whom did he say it? It was to the nursemaid, to appease the queen, and the queen would appease the king.
Why did he himself not enter? Rabbi Yehoshua of Sikhnin in the name of Rabbi Shmuel: Because a mourner may not enter the king’s palace.