to bow down before him but a little while before without
hindering it.[318] At the very moment when Joseph embraced
his father, Jacob was reciting the Shema', and he did not
allow himself to be interrupted in his prayer,[319] but then he
said, "When they brought me the report of the death of
Joseph, I thought I was doomed to double death--that I
should lose this world and the world to come as well. The
Lord had promised to make me the ancestor of twelve tribes,
and as the death of my son rendered it impossible that this
promise should be realized, I feared I had incurred the doom
by my own sins, and as a sinner I could not but expect
to forfeit the future world, too. But now that I have
beheld thee alive, I know that my death will be only for the
world here below."[320]