It required forty days, for such is the full period of embalming. The Egyptians bewailed him seventy days.
Source Citation
Torah Temimah cites Yerushalmi Sotah 1:10.
Chazal
Core Text
שבעים יום. א״ר אבהו, מפני מה זכו האומות לשבעים יום שבין אגרות המן לאגרות מרדכי? כנגד שבעים יום שעשו המצרים חסד עם יעקב אבינו.
English: “Seventy days.” Rabbi Abahu said: Why did the nations merit the seventy days between the letters of Haman and the letters of Mordechai? Corresponding to the seventy days during which the Egyptians showed kindness to our father Jacob.
On the daf / in context: Yerushalmi Sotah 1:10 connects the seventy days of mourning and kindness surrounding Yaakov’s burial with the seventy-day interval between Haman’s and Mordechai’s letters in the Purim narrative.
Type of Learning
Derash using the seventy-day period of mourning as the measure for later national consolation.
What Is Learned
The seventy days of Egyptian kindness at Jacob’s burial are read as the measure corresponding to the seventy-day interval in the Purim story.