Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Vayehi  Bereshit 47:28-50:26 By Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel – Every Friday evening, traditional Jewish parents bless their male children (and often grand-children), “May the Almighty make you like Efraim and Menashe” and their female children, “May the Almighty make you like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah.” Why not bestow the blessing of the patriarchs upon our male children paralleling our female children, “like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”?

Apparently because the Bible itself, in this week’s Torah reading, ordains, “And (Jacob) blessed (his grandsons) on that day saying, ‘In such a manner shall Israelites bless (their children) saying ‘May the Almighty make you like Efraim and Menashe,’ and he (Jacob) placed Efraim before Menashe” (Gen 48:2).

But the Biblical verse notwithstanding, what is so special about Efraim and Menashe? And why does Efraim, the younger son, receive top billing, with Jacob having purposefully placed his right had on the head of the younger Efraim rather on the elder Menashe? (Gen 48: 17-19). And what does Grand father Jacob mean when he requests of Joseph that these two grandsons born in Egypt ‘be his, Jacob’s “(Lahem) , like Reuven and Shimon?

In order to understand, it is necessary to analyze the personality of Joseph, and view his phenomenal personal and religious development through the verses of the Bible. Initially, Joseph is pictured as his father’s son, “These are the generations of Jacob; Joseph was seventeen years of age… Israel loved Joseph more than all of his children because he was the son of his wisdom and old age (Genesis 37: 2,3, and Rashi ad loc),” the most beloved son with whom he spent much time in transmission of the tradition and the son slated to be his heir and the bearer of the Abrahamic birthright. Joseph’s dreams, his visions of the brothers’ sheaves of grain as well as of the sun, moon and eleven stars all bowing down to him, express a cosmic arrogance as well as a hankering after the more sophisticated and powerful Egypt (agricultural grain production was much more a function of Egyptian society that the simpler and more wholesome shepherding which characterized the Abrahamic way of life in Israel) which the brothers believed to be antithetical to the family mission and covenant with G-d; father Jacob rebuked him for his hubris, (Gen 37:10) but at the same time apparently valued his universal reach, which could well be viewed as a desire to realize the Divine charge that “through (the Abrahamic family) all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

The brothers, in jealousy as well as righteous anger against the egocentric dreamer who threatens to undermine the united family vision of the centrality of G-d and the Land of Israel, cast Joseph into a pit, empty of water but filled with snakes and scorpions. The hapless eldest son of Rachel is suddenly filled by the full force of familial hatred against him. Joseph becomes “dis-membered” in the pit, physically sensing pain from every one of his separate bodily members and psychologically cutting himself off from his membership in what has become a cruel and vicious family of Israel intent on his destruction. From the perspective of the pit, he blames his father as well for having created such a dysfunctional familial relationship due to his egregious favoritism.

Joseph is sold into Egypt – and even succeeds in overcoming many obstacles and rising to the position of second-in-command to Pharoah himself. But his dis-memberment from his past only becomes more intense. He wears Egyptian garb, sports an Egyptian ring and necklace, assumes an Egyptian name and marries Osnat, the daughter of Potifar, Egyptian priest of On (Gen 41:42-45). He names the eldest son Menashe, forgetfulness, (dis-memberment), for “the Creator has enabled one to forget all of my toil and the household of my father” (dis-memberment, Gen 41:51). And he names his second son Efraim , fruitfulness, because “the Creator has made me fruitful, with future, in the land of my affliction.”

Joseph remained a moral son of the Creator (Elohim)- he withstood the seduction of Mrs. Potipahr – during this part of his Egyptian period, but the personal G-d of the Abrahamic covenant as well as the familial customs of the children of Israel seem to have eluded him. But as he develops, and as Yehuda succeeds in getting him to re-member by invoking a portrait of his loving and mourning father, Joseph regains his memory and memberment by fully re-joining the family of Israel. In a most poignant climax to the stories of Genesis, Joseph becomes reunited with his father, his memory and his past traditions. The eldest male son of Jacob and Rachel re-members with his father (zakhor to remember and zakhar, male descendant and recipient of the patriarchal line of DNA), sees the G-d of Abraham and Israel as having been the central architect of all his failures and successes, and with his dying breath asks to be buried in the Jewish homeland, Israel. His universalism has been re-united with the Abrahamic vision.

Now old grand-father Jacob comes to bless his grand-sons born in Egypt, Menashe and Efraim. True to their names, Menashe serves as his father’s linguist- interpreter and political adjutant, a true Egyptian scholar and statesman (Gen, 42, 43, Rashi ad loc). Efraim studied Torah with Grand-father Jacob as soon as the patriarch arrived in Egypt (Gen 48:1). Jacob – Israel understands well that the Jewish people must remain true to their past, must re-member ancient traditions, as they move into a future in which all the nations of the world inform their lives and their cultures with the peaceful and redemptive teachings of Israel. Torah must embrace the world – but it must first and foremost remain true to its source. So must our generations be blessed, like Efraim and Menashe together, but with Efraim before Menashe.