“Then Joseph ordered the physicians in his service to embalm his father, and the physicians embalmed Israel. It required forty days, for such is the full period of embalming. The Egyptians bewailed him seventy days”
Hebrew: וַיְצַו יוֹסֵף אֶת־עֲבָדָיו אֶת־הָרֹפְאִים לַחֲנֹט אֶת־אָבִיו וַיַּחַנְטוּ הָרֹפְאִים אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ וַיִּמְלְאוּ־לוֹ אַרְבָּעִים יוֹם כִּי־כֵן יִמְלְאוּ יְמֵי הַחֲנֻטִים וַיִּבְכּוּ אֹתוֹ מִצְרַיִם שִׁבְעִים יוֹם׃
(Genesis 50:2–3).
Why did the Egyptians mourn Yaacov for seventy days while the mummification process only took forty? The commentators explain that seventy is meant to include the forty embalming days and then thirty days of mourning. The thirty days of mourning are taken from the mourning period later for Moses and Ahron. The math works out here, but why would the Egyptians be following the Israelite mourning period? The commentators may have it backwards, and mostly as a result of the more modern understanding of the embalming process.
According to the Smithsonian Institute, the mummification process was painstaking and deliberate. Because of the delicate nature of the process, special priests handled everything. This could be what the Torah means by the “physicians” that Yosef ordered to embalm Yaacov. The first stage involved removing the internal organs. The priests removed the brain via the nose with special hooks and then the remaining organs were removed through a small incision on the body. The Egyptians would leave the heart as the most important organ. The organs were placed in separate jars. Next, the body was dried out using natron sprinkled outside and placed inside the body. The body was then stuffed with linen to appear less sunken and given fake eyes. It took hundreds of yards of linen to wrap the body, hands, and feet. In between layers, priests would add amulets and masks on the face.
Knowing the details of the process, Yosef most likely did not want the religious aspects of the ritual and the removal of the organs to happen to his father. This could be why Yaacov’s embalming process only took 40 days. The Egyptians, meanwhile, mourned the entire 70 days because that was the standard length of time for the process. Notice how the text says only the Egyptians mourned him for 70 days. Yosef most likely hid the fact that Yaacov had a shortened embalming process in order to not insult Pharaoh and the Egyptians. The text, however, made clear that Yaacov did not receive the full embalming process. The embalming process was extremely expensive and only Pharaoh, nobility and officials were the ones embalmed. It makes sense then that Yosef must specially instruct the priests to embalm Yaacov, but he himself is embalmed in due course, as the text explains in verse 26:
Hebrew: וַיַּחַנְטוּ אֹתוֹ וַיִּשְׂאֻהוּ מִצְרָיְמָה וַיִּקְבְּרוּ אֹתוֹ בְּמִצְרָיִם׃ (“So Joseph was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt” – Genesis 50:26).
Because Yaacov needs to be transported to Hebron, the only way to preserve his body for the long journey would be to embalm him. Recall how Rachel needed to be buried immediately where she died and could not be transported to Hebron. Knowing that his body will also be embalmed as an official of the state, Yosef is able to make the request that his body be transported for burial in Canaan in the future. חֲזַק חֲזַק וְנִתְחַזֵּק!
