Why did Moshe take the bones of Yosef? Couldn’t anyone else have done it? Couldn’t Yosef’s descendants have done it? What about any of the other elders? And why did Moshe take the bones of Yosef while all the rest of the Children of Israel were taking treasure?
- He was doing teshuva – Moses’ grandfather, Levi, was instrumental in wanting to kill Yosef and Moshe was taking responsibility for the blemish it left on his tribe by being zealous to fulfill Yosef’s request to be brought to Israel and buried there.
- He was taking back what Egypt had taken from him – While all the rest of the Children of Israel were taking back the riches that the Egyptians had taken from them, Moshe was different. He had had his IDENTITY taken and put in question because of the Egyptian galut. And so had Yosef, aka “Tzafnat Paaneach.” Both were displaced from the Children of Israel, became aristocracy in Egypt, and given Egyptian names as a result. And while Moshe was still using the Egyptian name that he would be known as forever more, he took back “Yosef,” the tzadik who played his role as an Egyptian monarch while staying true to his real identity. On a personal level, Moshe Rabeinu may have needed to identify with Yosef’s identity more than anyone else.
- No one else could – By taking Yosef’s mummified bones, Moshe was “stealing” one of Egypt’s great heroes. Egyptians looked up to their mummified heroes like gods and, by taking him away, Moshe was taking a national treasure. Who else in the Children of Israel commanded enough respect from the Egyptians to be able to do such a thing and get away with it? “Moshe, the man, was very great in the land of Egypt in the eyes of Pharaoh’s servants and in the eyes of the nation.
The above answers are not separate from one another but support each other.