When Moshe Rabbeinu was refused entry into Eretz Yisrael he complained to God: “The bones of Yosef shall enter the Land and I shall not enter?”

“He who proudly admitted that this was his land shall be buried in it,” replied God, “but he who did not admit that this was his land shall not be buried in it.”

Yosef did not deny his Hebrew origin when Potifar’s wife derided him as a “Hebrew brought here to make fun of us” (Bereishit 39:14). He even went further in describing himself to the chief butler as one who “had been stolen from the Land of the Hebrews” (Bereishit 39:14).

But when the daughters of Yitro told their father that “an Egyptian man rescued us” (Shemot 2:19), Moshe made no effort to correct this false impression and stress his Hebrew origins.

(Devarim Rabbah 2:8)

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