Ephraim versus Menashe

(1) Some time afterward, Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.(2) When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to see you,” Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed.(3) And Jacob said to Joseph, “El Shaddai appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and He blessed me,(4) and said to me, ‘I will make you fertile and numerous, making of you a community of peoples; and I will assign this land to your offspring to come for an everlasting possession.’

(5) Now, your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, shall be mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine no less than Reuben and Simeon.(6) But progeny born to you after them shall be yours; they shall be recorded instead of their brothers in their inheritance.(7) I [do this because], when I was returning from Paddan, Rachel died, to my sorrow, while I was journeying in the land of Canaan, when still some distance short of Ephrath; and I buried her there on the road to Ephrath”—now Bethlehem.(8) Noticing Joseph’s sons, Israel asked, “Who are these?”(9) And Joseph said to his father, “They are my sons, whom God has given me here.” “Bring them up to me,” he said, “that I may bless them.”

(10) Now Israel’s eyes were dim with age; he could not see. So [Joseph] brought them close to him, and he kissed them and embraced them.(11) And Israel said to Joseph, “I never expected to see you again, and here God has let me see your children as well.”(12) Joseph then removed them from his knees, and bowed low with his face to the ground.(13) Joseph took the two of them, Ephraim with his right hand—to Israel’s left—and Manasseh with his left hand—to Israel’s right—and brought them close to him.(14) But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head—thus crossing his hands—although Manasseh was the first-born.(15) And he blessed Joseph, saying, “The God in whose ways my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who has been my shepherd from my birth to this day—(16) The Angel who has redeemed me from all harm— Bless the lads. In them may my name be recalled, And the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, And may they be teeming multitudes upon the earth.”

(17) When Joseph saw that his father was placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head, he thought it wrong; so he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s.(18) “Not so, Father,” Joseph said to his father, “for the other is the first-born; place your right hand on his head.”(19) But his father objected, saying, “I know, my son, I know. He too shall become a people, and he too shall be great. Yet his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall be plentiful enough for nations.”(20) So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you shall Israel invoke blessings, saying: God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.” Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh.

לי הם THEY SHALL BE MINE — they shall be counted amongst my other sons, to receive a portion in the Land each for himself (i.e. each to have his own territory exactly as each of my other sons has).

שכל את ידיו PLACING HIS HANDS DESIGNEDLY — Understand this as the Targum renders it: אחכמינון he put wisdom into them (viz., into his hands), meaning designedly and wisely he moved his hands for this purpose, intelligently and with full knowledge, for he knew that Manasseh was the first-born and yet he did not place his right hand upon him.

המלאך הגאל אתי THE ANGEL REDEEMING ME — The angel who was usually sent to me in my trouble, as it is said, (Genesis 31:11) “And the angel of God said unto me in the dream: Jacob etc. … (Genesis 31:13), I am the God of Beth-el.”

וידגו AND LET THEM INCREASE — like fishes (דגים) which are fruitful and which multiply and which the evil eye cannot effect (Berakhot 20a).

Another began and said: One who enters a city and fears the evil eye should hold the thumb [zekafa] of his right hand in his left hand and the thumb of his left hand in his right hand and recite the following: I, so-and-so son of so-and-so, come from the descendants of Joseph, over whom the evil eye has no dominion, as it is stated: “Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine by a fountain [alei ayin]; its branches run over the wall” (Genesis 49:22). Do not read it as alei ayin; but rather, read it as olei ayin, who rise above the eye and the evil eye has no dominion over him. Rabbi Yosei, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, said: Derive it from here, from what is stated in Jacob’s blessing of Joseph’s sons: “And let them grow like fish into a multitude in the midst of the earth” (Genesis 48:16): Just as fish in the sea are covered by water and the evil eye has no dominion over them as they cannot be seen, so too the offspring of Joseph, the evil eye has no dominion over them. And if he is concerned about his own evil eye, lest it damage others, he should look at the side of his left nostril.

In the daytime, after the Hakafos, three Sifrei Torah are left out, and many people are called up to one Seifer Torah, to read the portion Vezos haberachah up to Me'onah (Deut. 33:27) repeating it many times. At the end, all the young boys are called up. It is proper that a boy who is bar mitzvah should say the berachah and that the others should listen.⁴They will be exempt with his berachah. The verse Hamalach hagoel is read for them⁵According to Levush this verse is recited over them as an oral blessing, but it is not read. (Ibid 669:14) [The angel who delivered me] etc. (Genesis 48:16). .

And he placed Efrayim before Menashe - The text wanted to teach us more regarding the wording of Yaakov our father. We already knew from him that in spiritual issues Efrayim is before Menashe and this is why he was before in the [order of encampment of] banners in the desert and in the dedication of the altar. Yet on wordly issues Menashe is before [Efrayim]. And therefore he comes before in the countings in Parashat Pinchas when they enter the land as I explained above. But we still didn't know who say first in name. It could have been the order that the Torah prefers, like Zevulun before Isachar, and so Menashe would come before Efrayim. And this is why the text comes to teach that Yaakv put the mentioning of Efrayim before Menashe, and this is to teach us that it is appropriate to put Torah before greatness in leading the world. And this is under the general principle of honor to the Torah and the level of the souls of Israel, in particular. And this is not similar to Zevulun and Isachar, since Zevulun was the one making possible that Isachar studied Torah. And this is not the case with Efrayim and Menashe, and this is the rule for all generations.

(51)And Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, for "God has caused me to forget all my toil and all my father's house."(52)And the second one he named Ephraim, for "God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction."

And all of my father's house - What (my siblings) did to me in my father's house. And the intent is not that he completely forgot, since if one mentions anything with one's lips they have not truly forgotten it. Rather, the reason is that God put me in a position in which I do not feel the bad that I found in my father's house, since how can it compare to my success and my greatness [of now]?

(52) קרא אפרים, “he called Ephrayim.” This was a reminder of the two founding fathers of the Jewish people, Avraham and Yitzchok, both of whom had described themselves as ashes, אפר. Compare Genesis 18,27 and Yitzchok, who when bound on the altar on Mount Moriah, considered himself as soon being burned to ashes. This is why the entire Jewish nation is on occasion called אפרים, compare Jeremiah 31,19: הבן יקיר לי אפרים, “truly, Ephrayim is a dear son to Me.”(G’d speaking)