ואני, המאמר הזה הוא להתנצל אל יוסף מה שלא קבר אמו במערה כמו שקבר לאה והוא צוה לו שישאהו ויקברהו במערה, אמר לו שלא פשע בזה כי מתה בדרך והוא היה הולך לאט לרגל המלאכה, ולא יכול לעזוב המלאכה ולנשאה לבית לחם וכל שכן למערה, וזהו שאמר עלי כמו "הצאן והבקר עלות עלי" ואם היה נושאה לרגל היתה מסרחת, אולי ימי קיץ היה. גם לא היה בידו לחנוט אותה כי לא היו רופאים עמו, ובדרך מתה, וקברה בדרך והציב מצבה על קבורתה: ואני, this entire paragraph was inserted to describe Yaakov’s apology or justification to Joseph why he, who was so insistent on where he wanted to be buried and who was putting Joseph to so much trouble in this connection, had himself not acted in a similar manner when it came to burying Joseph’s mother, his own favourite wife, seeing that he had buried Leah in the cave of Machpelah. He explained that he had in no way been at fault, that it was not negligence on his part, but that fate had intervened, Rachel dying suddenly on route to the land of Canaan. The fact that he was moving extremely slowly at the time on account of all his livestock, something that the Torah had reported Yaakov as explaining already to Esau at the time, (33,13) made it impossible for him to carry Rachel’s body with him seeing he had no means to embalm it and keep it from decaying and becoming putrid until he would reach Chevron. Presumably, the season was summer when it is even harder to keep a body from decaying quickly. He therefore chose to bury her without delay, in the most dignified manner which the prevailing conditions had permitted.