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‫פרשת ויחי‬
‫ועתה שני בניך הנולדים לך בארץ מצרים עד באי אליך מצרימה לי הם; אפרים ומנשה כראובן ושמעון‬
) ‫ (פרק מח' ה‬.‫יהיו לי‬
(Yaakov tells Yosef:) And now, your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before
my coming to you in Egypt shall be mine; Ephraim and Menashe shall be mine like Reuven and
Shimon.
The editors of Artscroll’s Stone Edition Chumash clearly and concisely explain the essence of
Yaakov’s objective and are worth citing. Based on .‫בבא בתרא קכא‬, “All agree that as a result of
Yaakov’s gift, each of the two tribes (Ephraim and Menashe) would have the title of a separate
tribe, have its own banner/flag in the Wilderness, and cast separate lots to determine the
location of their respective portions of the Land, i.e. who would live in the plains or mountains,
north or south and so on.” However, ‫“ חז"ל‬disagree on whether or not the new status of (the
two tribes) had any bearing on how much land they would receive in ‫ארץ ישראל‬. These views
are expressed by Rashi and Ramban in their respective commentaries…According to Rashi,
although ‫ ארץ ישראל‬would be divided into twelve portions, these territories would not be of
equal size. Rather, the size of a tribe’s portion depended on its population, with each eligible
Jew receiving an equal portion of the Land, so that for example, a tribe of 80,000 would receive
twice as much as a tribe of 40,000. Thus, Yosef’s offspring would receive the same amount of
land whether they were one tribe or two, and in terms of their portion of the Land, lots would
be drawn only to determine where they would be. According to Ramban, all twelve tribes
received equal portions, which were then subdivided among its members. Consequently, large
and small tribes had equal shares, but the individual member of a large tribe would receive less
than his cousin of a small tribe. Thus, the combined tribes of Yosef received a double portion of
land, since Menashe and Ephraim each received portions the same size as those of the other
tribes.”
The Rishonim are bothered with how Yaakov justified his decision. Rashbam says that Yaakov
felt, “Since HKBH gave to me ‫ארץ כנען‬, I have the right to divide it anyway I want to; I can have
you take a double portion by proclaiming you as my ‫ בכור‬and making Ephraim and Menashe on
par with Reuven and Shimon.” Chizkuni, based on .‫בבא בתרא קכג‬, believes that he did this as a
show of appreciation for Yosef’s sustaining him and his entire family through the years of the
hunger and their stay in Egypt. Also, this was a way of him declaring his special love for Yosef’s
mother, Rochel.”
The Meshech Chochma also takes up this issue but with a more impassioned approach. He
believes that back in ‫פרשת וישלח‬, when Hashem told Yaakov: ” ‫ואת הארץ אשר נתתי לאברהם‬
‫וליצחק לך אתננה ולזרעך אחריך אתן את הארץ‬/The land that I gave to Avraham and to Yitzchak, I
will give to you; and to your offspring after you I will give the Land,” He was in effect
prohibiting Yaakov from making any changes with the inheritance of the Land and this becomes
especially difficult according to Ramban’s view, who, as stated earlier, feels that land was in fact
taken away from the other sons and shifted to Yaakov’s grandsons! His answer is a wonderful
example of how a Master Parshan approaches every word in the Torah as if it were its own ‫ספר‬
and how he weaves together ‫ תורה שבכתב‬with esoteric ‫ מאמרי חז"ל‬to create a deeper
understanding of ‫פשוטו של מקרא‬. He focuses on Yaakov’s word choice of ‫לי‬...‫ועתה שני בניך‬
‫הם‬/And now, your two sons…shall be mine. He could have said ‫–והנה‬behold, which would
convey the same idea with the same sentiment. Rav Meir Simcha feels that Yaakov specifically
chose ‫ ועתה‬to make a vital limitation in his proclamation and he bases this on a cryptic
statement of ‫( חז"ל‬also) from .‫בבא בתרא קכב‬: “In the future (i.e. in the Messianic era), the Land
of Israel will be divided among thirteen tribes.” As Rashbam and Tosafos explain, a pasuk in
'‫ יחזקאל מח‬tells us that ‫בימי המשיח‬, the tribe of Levi will receive its own portion, but Menashe
and Ephraim will also only receive one portion between the two of them. (The Gemara then
asks, “To whom will the thirteenth portion go? It exegetically derives that it will go the ‫מלך‬
‫המשיח‬.( That is why Yaakov carefully chose the word ‫ועתה‬, so that even according to Ramban,
he was not making any permanent changes in HKBH’s plan for the partitioning of ‫ארץ ישראל‬.
Finally, Rav Meir Simcha also uses this idea to explain why Yosef reacted so strongly when ‫וישלח‬
...‫ יעקב את ימינו וישת על ראש אפרים והוא הצעיר ואת שמאלו על ראש מנשה‬/(And) Yaakov extended
his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head though he was younger and his left hand on
Menashe’s head… by forcefully telling his father, "‫ כי זה הבכור‬,‫לא כן אבי‬/Not so father, for
(Menashe) is the first born!” but does not react at all when in our pasuk, Yaakov mentions
Ephraim before Menashe. Our pasuk is dealing with the inheritance of the land-Yosef knew that
his sons received equal portions. The order of the names did not change that. Later, however,
when Yaakov switched his hands, Yosef understood that as a more concrete act of his
“partiality” towards Ephraim and that is what Yosef was trying to mitigate. In the end though,
Yaakov says, “ ‫ ידעתי‬,‫ידעתי בני‬/I know my son, I know…” He repeats the expression to imply that
just as before, he intentionally mentioned Ephraim before Menashe, so too now, he is
intentionally giving Ephraim the more powerful right-handed blessing. Sadly for Yosef, his
father never seems to tell him precisely why that had to be.
‫לזכר נשמת אבי מורי ישראל מנחם בן שלום ז"ל‬
‫ולזכר נשמת הרב יהודה בן אברהם שמחה (קופרמן) זצ"ל‬