Parshat Vayechi: Ya’akov’s Blessings

The importance of a b’racha, a blessing, is prominent throughout the book of Bereishit.  All of the patriarchs are blessed and give blessings multiple times and these blessings are a vital part of the patriarchs and their families’ lives.  It therefore seems appropriate for the concluding parsha of Bereishit to contain numerous blessings, if indeed they can all be called that. 

The first blessings are given to Yosef and his two sons, Ephraim and Menashe, by Ya’akov, and it is the ending of this blessing that Jewish fathers use to bless their sons each Friday night before Shabbat dinner (daughters are blessed using a different version of the blessing):

So he [Ya’akov] blessed them that day saying, By you shall Israel invoke blessings, saying: “God make you like Ephraim and Menashe.”

Many have asked and answered the question of why specifically this blessing is the one permanently used, in every generation, to bless Jewish sons.  One answer comes from the Netziv in his book Ha’amek Ha’Davar: “Ephraim and Menashe were each great in different ways: Ephraim was great in Torah and adhering to the Lord, while Menashe was great in the ways of the world and caring for the community.”  I do not know the reasons why Ephraim and Menashe represent these two different ways of living a Torah-driven life but the blessing shows the importance of both.  We typically focus on one, but one should not exclude the other.  A working man such as Menashe must also make time for Torah study and mitzvoth observance; likewise someone studying in Kollel, dedicated to studying Torah, must still provide a livelihood for his family. 

The blessings that follow this in the Torah, where Ya’akov “blesses” his twelve sons, is where the blessings get more interesting.  Ibn Ezra comments on Ya’akov’s words: “Those who say that they are blessings, are mistaken…Where is the blessing in what was said to Reuven, Shimon, and Levi?”  Indeed many of his parting words seem more properly labeled as a rebuke, or perhaps as a parting teaching to each. 

To Reuven:

Reuven, you are my first-born, my might and first fruit of my vigor, exceeding in rank and exceeding in honor.  Unstable as water, you shall excel no longer; for when you mounted your father’s bed, you brought disgrace – my couch he mounted.  (v. 49:3-4)

While this starts out positively it quickly turns downward.  It is not an outright blessing; on the surface it appears closer to a curse (“you shall excel no longer”). 

To Shimon and Levi:

Shimon and Levi are a pair; their weapons are tools of lawlessness.  Let not my person be included in their council, let not my being be counted in their assembly.  For when angry they slay men, and when pleased they maim oxen.  Cursed be their anger so fierce, and their wrath so relentless.  I will divide them in Jacob, scatted them in Israel.  (v. 5-7)

Again, it is not clear how to take Ya’akov’s words.  It appears to be a testament to their character and a punishment of sorts (“divide them in Jacob”) for their past actions to prevent them from negatively influencing each other to such bad action again. 

Zevulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, and Binyamin merely have something related to their personality or temperament said to them, or a brief and cryptic insight into their future.

Only Yehuda and Yosef appear to be spoken to in a directly positive manner that could reasonably be considered a blessing. When speaking to Yehuda, Ya’akov beings: You, O Yehuda, your brothers shall praise….  And with Yosef he concludes: The blessings of your father surpass the blessings of my ancestors, to the utmost bounds of the eternal hills.  May they rest on the head of Yosef, on the brow of the elect of his brothers. 

The blessings of these sons set them apart from the others, but not because they were “favored” (although Yosef is known to be Ya’akov’s favorite) or because they were inherently deserving.  Ibn Ezra says of the apparent discrepancy: “And this is what their father said to them as he bade them farewell, addressing to each a parting word appropriate to him.”  Ya’akov knew the nature of each of his sons and this is what prompted him to impart his final words of “blessing” with a goal of having them improve on their flawed character traits or embracing them for the right purpose instead of misusing them (as Shimon and Levi did).  The Or HaChaim agrees with this, stating:  “Even though we see that he did not bless Reuven, Shimon, of Levi, Scripture would say that his harsh words to them was their blessing.”  This is most prominently shown through the tribe of Levi that elevates themselves to being worthy of the Temple service, while Shimon does not heed his blessing and rise up to be a leader of Israel.  It is much harder to take, but we can learn as much – if not more – from criticism, as we can from praise.  Sometimes, as in this parsha, a blessing can be a harsh one.