Literary Devices – Bereshit 50/0

Literary Devices – Bereshit 50

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Literary Envelope

In a literary envelope, a section begins and ends with similar ideas or words, helping to demarcate  a coherent narrative unit with consistent themes throughout.

Yosef and Yaakov

• The story of Yaakov’s relationship with Yosef begins with the 17 years that they lived together before Yosef was sold (37:2) and concludes with the 17 years that they spent together after being reunited in Egypt (47:28).¹ This implies a sense of resolution and closure that is achieved with their reunion, and the significance of their relationship as the defining backbone of their narratives.
• Sources – Radak notes that the frame also illustrates the reversal of roles that takes place over the course of life: “דרשו בו כמו שהיה יוסף בחיק יעקב שבע עשרה כן היה יעקב בחיק יוסף שבע עשרה שנה”

Sefer Bereshit: From Life to Death

• Prof. Robert Alter notes that Sefer Bereshit begins with Hashem’s breath calling all life into being, and ends with the image of a body in a coffin. This represents the closure of the first stage of human history in the eyes of Tanakh. Sefer Shemot will open the next stage with a narrative of prolific birth.

• Articles
• See R. Alter, Genesis: Translation and Commentary, (New York, 1996).
• For discussion of how literary envelopes, be they inlcusios or inversions, might help a reader demarcate the boundaries of a story, see Prof. Yonatan Grossman's Narrative Demarcation (I) - "You Have Set an Inviolable Boundary".

Key Words

The various keywords of this chapter (father, ascent and land, on one hand, and embalming and mourning on the other) relate to both the national and personal spheres. This is a common, if subtle, motif in Tanakh, that national concerns and aspirations -- such as the return to the land of Israel -- are rooted in the personal experiences of individuals and their relationships to each other.

Father,  Ascent and Land

Tanakh Lab demonstrates that the words that appear with greatest frequency in this chapter are אב, עלה, ארץ. The terms appear in two contexts -- the returning of Yaakov to be buried in the land of Israel and the promise that the nation of Israel will eventually return as well.² Thus Sefer Bereshit concludes by emphasizing the eternal link of the Patriarchs and their descendants to the Land.

On Mourning

The words that appear with greatest frequency in Bereshit 50 relative to the rest of Bereshit and the rest of Tanakh are “חנט”  (embalming) and “אֵבֶל” (mourning), reflecting the specific connection of this chapter to the period and practices of mourning.

"פקד"

• Though the root "פקד" appears only four times in the chapter, see the concordance that, with one exception, all appearances of the root (and the related noun פקיד) in Sefer Bereshit are found in the Yosef narratives,³ suggesting that the word might play an important role in the story.
• Articles – Prof. Yonatan Grossman, in his article Leitwort (III) discusses the repetition of the root, noting that it takes various forms with different meanings:: “פקד” (to take account or remember), “הפקיד” (appoint), and “פקיד” (agent) . The various usages and different contexts⁴ underscore the theme of dual causality that is central to the story of Yosef, playing with the question: “Who is the ruler? Who is the agent?”  (God or man?) 

¹ This unit is also framed by an inlcusio: In the description of Yosef and Yaakov's reunion in 46:29, the two throw themselves upon on another and cry. Here, upon Yaakov's death seventeen years later, Yosef similarly throws himself on his father and weeps (50:1).

² Interestingly, Tanakh Lab demonstrates that the Biblical chapter that has most in common linguistically with Bereshit 50 is Shemot 13, which describes the fulfillment of this promise and the preparations for the nation's ascent from Egypt back to Israel.

³ Together they appear ten times.

⁴ The root first appears in Bereshit 39:4-5, when Yosef is appointed to a position of authority in Potiphar’s house, and in the following chapter when Yosef is appointed to serve the butler and baker in jail (Bereshit 40:4). Later, it is used in the context of other people who will be given authority to collect grain and administer a plan for Egypt’s welfare (41:33-34). Finally, it describes Hashem’s taking account of the Children of Israel in the future (50:24-25). Over the course of the story, Yosef moves from thinking of himself as the one who is meant to attain greatness to realizing that his role is to make way for God’s plan.