Mitzvot and Treasures

One more interesting point from פרשת בשלח. The Torah makes a point of telling us that Moshe Rabbeinu himself took the bones of Yosef out of Egypt for his permanent burial in Shechem. There are two lessons to be learned from Yosef's remains. The Egyptians thought that they could the Jewish people in Egypt indefinitely as long as they hid Yosef's remains.

The Midrash says that Moshe stood by the water where Yosef was placed and said the magic words, פקוד יפקוד and the casket with the bones rose to the top of the water. One final time the Egyptians were shown that they cannot outsmart Hashem and Moshe Rabbeinu.

The second lesson was that while Moshe searched for Yosef's remains, the rest of the people were searching for gold and silver. The Ramchal says that if we would only seek out Torah and Mitzvot, the way we seek treasures, we'd be better off. Moshe taught this by his personal example.