מהרי"א – 37:35 “ויקומו כל בניו וכל בנותיו לנחמו וימאן להתנחם ויאמר כי ארד אל בני אבל שאולה, ויבך אותו אביו” – “All of his sons and all of his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to comfort himself, and said: For I will go down to the grave mourning for my son, and his father bewailed him.” Rashi says that one cannot accept Tanchumin, consolation, on a live person. One can only be consoled if the person that he is mourning is really not alive. Certainly, Yaakov Avinu knew this rule, and thus Yaakov Avinu should have known that by the fact that he was not able to be consoled, that was the proof that his son, Yosef, was still alive. We can explain why in fact Yaakov did believe that Yosef was not alive, based upon a Midrash. The Midrash says that Hakodosh Boruch Hu told Yaakov Avinu that if one of his sons died during his lifetime, then Yaakov would see Gehinom, while if his children would outlive him, he was guaranteed Olam Habah. Thus, when they came to be console Yaakov, they tried telling him that by the fact that Yaakov was not being consoled, that was proof that Yosef was indeed not alive. However, they did not know about the sign that Yaakov was given, and that Yaakov could not be consoled, for he believed that his son died in his lifetime, and thus he lost his guarantee of Olam Habah.
