Parashat: Vayechi

Parashat: Vayechi
Genesis 47:28–50:26

So [Israel] 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.

— Genesis 48:20

As we come to the conclusion of the book of Genesis, we find Jacob (now Israel) on his deathbed, preparing to offer his final words of wisdom and warning to his sons. First, however, he blessed his grandsons, the children of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh. In this scene we see echoes of Jacob’s experience with his own father: his eyes have dimmed with age, just as Isaac’s did. However while Isaac was tricked into offering his blessing to his younger son, Jacob purposefully places his right-hand on the head of his younger grandson, asserting that he will become greater than his older brother. To this day, the traditional blessing that Jewish parents will offer their sons repeats these words of Jacob: may you grow to be like Ephraim and Mansseh, children born and raised within another culture but not lost to it, brothers who (despite the behavior of many generations who came before them) do not feud with one another.

— Rachel Petroff Kessler