“The time for Israel to die approached and he called his son, Joseph, and he said to him: Please, if I have found favor in your eyes, please place your hand under my thigh and perform kindness and truth with me; please do not bury me in Egypt” (Genesis 47:29). “The time for Israel to die approached.” It is written: “For I am a stranger with You, a resident, [as were all my fathers]” (Psalms 39:13).
“For we are strangers before You…our days on earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope” (I Chronicles 29:15) – if only it would be like the shadow of a wall, or the shadow of a tree,4If our life is compared to a shadow, if only it could be like the shadow of a wall or tree, which stays in place and has stability. but instead it is like the shadow of a bird when it is flying, as it is written: “Like a passing shadow” (Psalms 144:4).
“And there is no hope” – there is no one who can hope not to die. Everyone knows and says with his mouth that he will die. Abraham said: “I am going5“Going” here is in the sense of dying. childless” (Genesis 15:2). Isaac said: “I will bless you before the Lord before my death” (Genesis 27:7). Jacob, too, said: “I will lie with my fathers” (Genesis 47:30). When [did he say this]? When he was about to die.