(1) Joseph flung himself upon his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. (2) Then Joseph ordered the physicians in his service to embalm his father, and the physicians embalmed Israel. (3) It required forty days, for such is the full period of embalming. The Egyptians bewailed him seventy days; (4) and when the wailing period was over, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh’s court, saying, “Do me this favor, and lay this appeal before Pharaoh: (5) ‘My father made me swear, saying, “I am about to die. Be sure to bury me in the grave which I made ready for myself in the land of Canaan.” Now, therefore, let me go up and bury my father; then I shall return.’” (6) And Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you promise on oath.” (7) So Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the officials of Pharaoh, the senior members of his court, and all of Egypt’s dignitaries, (8) together with all of Joseph’s household, his brothers, and his father’s household; only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the region of Goshen. (9) Chariots, too, and horsemen went up with him; it was a very large troop. (10) When they came to Goren ha-Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they held there a very great and solemn lamentation; and he observed a mourning period of seven days for his father.
§ It was related that Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba, Rabbi Ami, and Rabbi Yitzḥak Nappaḥa were once sitting in the pavilion of Rabbi Yitzḥak ben Elazar and were conversing. A matter emerged from among them: From where is it derived that the rites of mourning are observed for seven days? As it is written: “And I will turn your Festivals into mourning” (Amos 8:10). Just as a Festival lasts for seven days, so too mourning lasts for seven days.
(11) When Job’s three friends heard about all these calamities that had befallen him, each came from his home—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They met together to go and console and comfort him. (12) When they saw him from a distance, they could not recognize him, and they broke into loud weeping; each one tore his robe and threw dust into the air onto his head. (13) They sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights. None spoke a word to him for they saw how very great was his suffering.
§ The Gemara moves to a different issue: A mourner is obligated to overturn his bed, so that he sleeps on the underside of it, as bar Kappara taught a baraita that states:
God stated: I have placed the likeness of My image within humans, as they were created in My image, and owing to their sins I have overturned it, as when this person died the Divine image in him was removed. Therefore, you must also overturn your beds on account of this.
(א) דין כפיית המטה. ובו ב' סעיפים:
אבל חייב בכפיית המטה ובשעת שינה ואכילה יושב על מטה כפויה אבל כל היום אינו יושב אפילו על מטה כפויה אלא על גבי קרקע וכן המנחמים אינן רשאים לישב אלא ע"ג קרקע:
(1) A mourner is required to overturn the couch. When the time for sleeping or eating [arrives], he may sit [or sleep] on an overturned couch, but during the entire day he may not sit even on an overturned couch, he must sit on the ground. So too, the comforters are only allowed to sit on the ground.2
ומנין לכפיית המיטות ר' קריספי בשם ר' יוחנן (איוב ב׳:י״ג) וישבו אתו לארץ על הארץ אין כתיב כאן אלא וישבו אתו לארץ אלא דבר שהוא סמוך לארץ מיכן שהיו ישנין על מיטות כפיות.
From where do we know that we flip over the beds? Rabbi Krispi says in the name of Rabbi Yochanan, the verse in Job says, "They sat with him towards the ground". It doesn't say "on the ground", rather "towards the ground", therefore we sit on something that is close to the ground. This is where we derive the custom to sleep on overturned beds while in shiva.