They were blessed by just being born to Joseph, who was the second most powerful man in Egypt. In some ways Ephraim and Menashe’s blessing is unearned. In studying and thinking about this as Zach prepared for his Bar Mitzvah and in thinking about what blessings I would like to give him, it occurs to me that I really want him to have both earned and unearned blessings. The last line asks that they are so successful that their (the Jewish People’s) numbers increase in the land. For Jews can only recall the great deeds of our ancestors if the current generation takes up their call. So, by saying Israel will bless their children using Ephraim and Menashe’s names, he is connecting future generations to their embodiment of Jewish tradition. I don’t think he wants this so he remains famous he wants this because he wants them to act like his fathers did and walk with God.
He says that he, Isaac and Abraham should be recalled through them. In fact, he sometimes needed divine intervention through redemption by God’s angel even if he didn’t actually deserve it. Jacob then goes on to acknowledge that sometimes that wasn’t enough.
To me, this means that God guided him to do the right things and provided direction but didn’t just giving him everything. They earned their spot in the pantheon of Jewish lore and they earned God’s blessing. He is saying that his fathers, Abraham and Isaac, walked with God and did God’s will.
In actuality, Jacob’s blessing to them is that they receive both earned and unearned favor. Then, after a brief interruption, Jacob says that “by you (the boys) Israel shall invoke blessings, saying: God make you like Ephraim and Manashe.” The Angel who has redeemed me from all harm-Īnd the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac,Īnd may they be teeming multitudes upon the earth. The God who has been my shepherd from my birth to this day – The God in whose ways my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, To understand this blessing it is important to realize that it is actually the end of a longer blessing and it contains one of Ramah’s favorite Seudah Shlishit (Saturday night) songs, Hamalach Hagoel Oti. Frankly, I don’t think Ephraim and Menashe are in their league. Each of them was critical to the creation and passing on of early Judaism. The matriarchs clearly earned this right. Our rabbis tried to rectify this by having a separate blessing for daughters that states, “May God make you like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah.” However, this strikes me as odd. What exactly did Ephraim and Menashe do to merit having us bless our children by asking God to make them more like them? The rabbis offer up many explanations, including that they are meritorious because they were observant Jews despite being raised in idolatrous Egypt.Īnother issue for me is that the blessing only invokes males. Jacob’s blessing is, “May God make you like Ephraim and Menashe.” Jacob states that that this is how parents will bless their children through the ages.ĭespite the fact that we do this blessing weekly and it has generational meaning to our family, I have always struggled with this blessing. We even have a version for our dog, Rufus.