Jacob Refuses Comfort and Wears the Sackcloth That Endures

"And he recognized it and said, It is my son's tunic" (Genesis 37:33). He said: I do not know what I am seeing. "A wild beast has devoured him" the Holy Spirit flickered within him this is the wife of Potiphar. Another interpretation: this is Judah, for it says "a wild beast," and a wild beast means none other than a lion, as it is written, "Judah is a lion's whelp" (Genesis 49:9). "And Jacob tore his garments" (Genesis 37:34). The tribes caused their father to tear; where was it repaid to them? In Egypt: "and they tore their garments" (Genesis 44:13). Joseph caused it, and so forth. Manasseh caused the tribes to tear, therefore his inheritance was torn in two, half across the Jordan and half in the land of Canaan. Benjamin caused the tribes to tear; where was it repaid to him? In Shushan the capital: "and Mordecai tore his garments" (Esther 4:1). "And he put sackcloth on his loins." Because Jacob took hold of sackcloth, it never departed from his sons and his sons' sons until the end of all generations: David, as it says, "and David and the elders, covered in sackcloth" (1 Chronicles 21:16); Ahab, "and he put sackcloth on his flesh" (1 Kings 21:27); Joram, "and the people saw, and behold, the sackcloth was on his flesh within"; Mordecai, "and he put on sackcloth and ashes" (Esther 4:1). "And he mourned for his son many days." These are twenty-two years. "And all his sons and all his daughters rose to comfort him" (Genesis 37:35). Rabbi Yehudah says: The tribes married their sisters; this is what is written, "and all his sons," and so forth. Rabbi Nehemiah says: They were Canaanite women. Rav Nachman said, concerning Rabbi Yehudah's view, "and all his daughters" how many daughters did he have? He had but one, and would that he had buried her. Rather, a man does not refrain from calling his son-in-law his son and his daughter-in-law his daughter. "And he refused to be comforted." A noblewoman asked Rabbi Yose: It is written, "for Judah prevailed over his brothers" (1 Chronicles 5:2), and it is written, "and Judah was comforted" (Genesis 38:12); yet this man, the father of them all, his impulse overpowered him, and he refused to be comforted? He said to her: One accepts comfort for the dead but not for the living. A certain heretic asked our master: Is it possible that the dead live? Your forefathers do not concede it, yet you do. What is written of Jacob? "And he refused to be comforted." Had he known the dead live, would he have refused to be comforted? He said to him: Fool, it was precisely because he knew by the Holy Spirit that Joseph was alive that he refused, for one does not accept comfort for the living.