Moses Chooses the Bones of Joseph While Israel Took Spoil

(Exodus 13:19) "And Moses took the bones of Joseph." Moses merited the bones of Joseph, and there was none in Israel greater than he, as it is said, "And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him." Come and see how beloved the commandments were to Moses our teacher: while all Israel busied themselves with the spoil, he busied himself with the commandments, as it is said, "The wise of heart takes commandments" (Proverbs 10:8). And how did Moses know where Joseph was buried? They said: Serach the daughter of Asher remained from that generation. Moses went to her and said, "Do you by any chance know where Joseph is buried?" She said to him, "The Egyptians made a metal coffin for him and sank it in the Nile river so that its waters would be blessed." Moses went and stood on the bank of the Nile and said, "Joseph, Joseph, the time has come that the Holy One, blessed be He, swore to redeem Israel, and the oath you imposed upon Israel has come due. If you show yourself, good; and if not, behold, we are cleared of the oath." Immediately Joseph's coffin floated up. And do not be astonished, for it is written (II Kings 6:5-6), "And as one was felling a beam, the iron fell into the water, and he cried out and said... 'Where did it fall?' And he showed him the place, and he cut off a stick and threw it there, and the iron floated." And the matter is an argument from minor to major: if for Elisha, the disciple of Elijah, and Elijah the disciple of Moses, iron floated up, then before Moses our teacher how much more so. Rabbi Nathan says: he was buried in the royal mausoleum. Moses went and stood there and said, "Joseph, Joseph," and so forth. Immediately Joseph's coffin shook, and Moses took it and brought it to himself. The verses contradict one another: it is written, "And Moses took the bones of Joseph," and it is written (Joshua 24:32), "And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up." (This is written at remez 145.)