Vayechi (Genesis 47:28-50:26)
OVERVIEW
This final section of the Joseph cycle of stories, and this final parashah of the Book of Bereshit, begins seventeen years after Jacob's arrival in Egypt, when he was 147 years old. Jacob is close to death, so he summons Joseph to his bedside and has him pledge solemnly that he will not bury him in Egypt. He wants to be interred at the family burial place at the Cave of Machpelah, in Hebron. As Jacob's condition worsens, Joseph brings his two sons, Ephraim and Menasseh to see his father. Jacob blesses Joseph's two boys, effectively adopting them as his own sons and giving their future descendants the status of tribes. To receive the blessing, Joseph positions his older son Menasseh at Jacob's right hand, the hand of preference, and the younger son Ephraim at Jacob's left. But, following the trend of his own life where he, the younger brother, usurped the blessing of his older brother, Jacob reverses his hands so that the younger brother receives the blessing of the older. The boys are blessed together with the words that are used to this day by parents to bless a son (48:20).
Jacob then calls all his sons to his deathbed and gives them his final words, an "ethical will" of sorts that is a blend of assessment, prophecy, warning, prayer and blessing. Jacob then reiterates to all the sons that he is to be buried in Canaan, at Machpelah, next to Leah. Having said all he has to say, Jacob then dies, is embalmed and then mourned in Egypt for seventy days. With Pharaoh's approval, Jacob is taken by his family to be buried in the Land of Israel. With Jacob gone, the brothers become concerned that Joseph might now take revenge against them for having sold him into slavery. The brothers throw themselves on Joseph's mercy. In tears, Joseph assures them that he bears no grudge against them. He reminds them that God has brought them all to Egypt for a reason. The parashah concludes with Joseph's death at the age of 110. He is embalmed and buried in Egypt. But, prior to his death, Joseph also asks to have his bones taken up to Israel when the Israelite nation eventually leaves Egypt.
IN FOCUS
So he blessed them that day saying, "By you shall Israel invoke blessings, saying, may God make you like Ephraim and Menasseh." (Genesis 48:20)
PSHAT
Knowing that he is about to die, Jacob asks his beloved son Joseph to bring his children before him. Joseph bring Menasseh and Ephraim, his sons who were born to him and his Egyptian wife Asenath in Egypt. As the sons of the leader of Egypt, Menasseh and Ephraim were raised as princes, wanting for nothing.
Here Jacob does something very strange. Rather then blessing his son Joseph as he will do with all his other sons soon after, Jacob instead adopts his Egyptian grandsons as his own and blesses them in place of their father. This means that the grandsons will each receive a share equal to their uncles, and, in the future, when the sons of Israel (Jacob's other name) become the tribes of Israel, the tribes of Ephraim and Menasseh will also receive an equal portion of the Promised Land, in their father's place. There is no tribe of Joseph.
After giving the boys individual blessings, Jacob concludes with a collective blessing, which is really aimed at their father Joseph. He says that all the future generations of Israel will be blessed using the names "Ephraim and Menasseh." This special blessing for Joseph's sons has come true. To this day , "May God make you like Ephraim and Menasseh" are the very words that Jewish parents traditionally use to bless their sons on Shabbat.
DRASH
But what do we mean when we say to our sons, "May God make you like Ephraim and Menasseh?" Do we mean that we want God to make all our sons like princes in Egypt? Hardly, although I am sure this is not a bad thing. So what exactly are we asking of God when we ask for our sons to be like Joseph's sons?
Our tradition seems to think this is self evident, since there is really very little commentary on this question. Rashi is content with the Pshat explanation above, that all future generations shall be blessed using Ephraim and Menasseh's names, but he does not explain why. Ramban is satisfied explaining that Joseph is, in fact. not being passed over for blessing. Rather, he explains, Joseph is blessed since the greatest blessing parents can receive is the blessing of their children. I am sure all parents can understand this idea, but it still does not explain why all future boys are to be blessed specifically in the names of Ephraim and Menasseh (girls are blessed in the names of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah). Both Rashi and Ramban, and most of the other classical commentators, then go on to discuss the placement of the younger son (Ephraim) before the older (Menasseh), but that is not what interests me. I want to understand what exactly it is that I am asking of God when I ask that my son be like Ephraim and Menasseh.
Ephraim and Menasseh, raised in exalted circumstances, must have been comfortable and prosperous, which are certainly things I would want for my son. They were also fortunate to have the love of their family, and particularly a loving relationship with their grandfather, whom, had the story had a different outcome, they never would have met. We actually know very little about these boys from the Torah text itself, but we can assume they led a seriously privileged life.
But blessing means more than just prosperity and privilege. We must dig deeper to find out what it was about Ephraim and Menasseh that made them worthy of such great blessing. The commentary Igra DeKallah, quoted in the anthology Wellsprings of Torah, tries to answer this same question by looking at the boy's behaviour as compared to others in the story:
Why should Jacob have wanted all his descendants to bless their children with the examples of Ephraim and Menasseh rather than with that of some other two of the tribes of Israel?
Because the two young sons of Joseph had conducted themselves in accordance with the fundamental law of the Torah; namely, that one should neither consider oneself greater than another nor envy another. Even though Jacob had set Ephraim, the younger son, before Menasseh, the first born, Ephraim did not become arrogant and Menasseh did not become jealous. Seeing this, Jacob expressed the hope that all the Children of Israel would be like Ephraim and Menasseh, free of arrogance and envy.
This is a somewhat ironic twist, after many generations of parental favouritism, sibling rivalry and family dysfunction. Menasseh, in particular, merits blessing because he does not get upset or vengeful when his younger brother receives the blessing of the first born over him. And Ephraim, the younger who is set over his older brother, in no way flaunts it or lets it go to his head. Through this reversed blessing, Jacob, in his own way, tries to make "right" both his own usurpation of his older brother Esau's birthright and blessing, as well as his own favouritism of Joseph (and later Benjamin). Jealousy and arrogance have been the source of so much tzurris (trouble) in Jacob's family. Hopefully, with this blessing, in the future, all of his descendants will be like Ephraim and Menasseh, free of such feelings and destructive inclinations.
But another view of the blessing draws from the special relationship between Jacob and his Egyptian born grandsons. The special bond between grandparents and grandchildren can be a source of blessing in of itself, and Ephraim and Menasseh were certainly fortunate to be singled out by Jacob (who must have had many many grandchildren by this point) to receive a full share of his spiritual inheritance. Not only did Jacob never expect to know children of Joseph, but, unlike his other grandchildren who were born and raise in the Land of Israel, Ephraim and Menasseh were children of the Diaspora, born and raised in Egypt, with no connection to the "old country" and primarily influence by a foreign culture. As Pinchas Peli (z"l), points out, this made the relationship even more important. "To make sure that the dream of Israel in not to be buried in Egypt," Peli writes, "Jacob turns to the young generation." Jacob knew that he had a responsibility to his grandsons, to pass on to the tradition in a way that would make sense to them when and where they lived. By adopting them as his own and passing on blessing, he took an active and significant role in their lives, assuming responsibility not only for the past, but for the future as well. He recognized that these children were different, individuals, and he respected and treated them as such. In invoking the names of Ephraim and Menasseh when we bless our own children, we could not ask for them any more.
DAVAR AHER
...Israel's eyes had dimmed with age (Genesis 48:8).
Toldot Yitzhak writes: Why does the verse tell us now that Israel could not see? Because, when one wishes to bless another, it is customary to look at the one receiving the blessing, so that the blessing will rest upon him. Jacob could not see and thus requested that they be brought to his side where he could touch them, and in that way the blessing would rest upon them. Because nowadays few people have clear vision, we must bless with our hands.
And, as we say when we conclude the reading of a Book of Torah : Khazak, Khazak, V'Nitkhazek!
