Shabbat Parashat Vayechi - 5784

Shabbat Parashat Vayechi - 5784

Rabbi Hal Miller

  And now, your two sons who were born to you in Egypt before my coming to you, to

  Egypt, they are mine. Ephraim and Menashe shall be mine like Reuven and Shimeon.

  [Bereishit 48:5]

What did Yaakov mean that Yosef's two sons were his? In the next verse [6] Yaakov adds,

"But progeny born to you after them shall be yours, they will be included under the name

of their brothers with regard to their inheritance." Why did he state this, as it would appear

to have been obvious?

Rashi explains verse 6 to mean that other sons born to Yosef will not be among Yaakov's

sons, rather will be included under Menashe and Ephraim, meaning "they will not have a

name among the tribes in the matter of possession".

Ramban disagrees, separating the firstborn rights into two types, land inheritance of a firstborn

and the honor of being called tribes. If Rashi is correct that only these two are tribes, which is

because of Yosef's honor, then why would "with regard to their inheritance" be included other

than as some kind of limitation? Further the Gemara [Horayos 6b] says that they are being

equated to Reuven and Shimeon with regard to inheritance, which Ramban says excludes

anything else. He then discusses in depth the distribution of land in the process of inheritance,

noting that equating Menashe and Ephraim to Reuven and Shimeon does not make sense, as

Reuven was firstborn and entitled to a double portion. If Yaakov intended that Yosef get that

double portion by including both of his sons, why would he make this statement? Rashbam

says Yaakov means that Yosef's sons will receive an inheritance equivalent to that of Reuven

and Shimeon combined but that still doesn't match up numerically to what happened.

Many commentators note that Yosef had no more children, so by this action, Yaakov had

ended the tribal status of Yosef. By replacing one tribe with two, in order to maintain the

number twelve, it means not counting Levi. The only area in which Levi is not counted is

the division of the land, as the Torah Temimah explains. Thus Yaakov must have meant

that Menashe and Ephraim were his for purposes of dividing the land and that Yosef

retained no inheritance himself, as shown by verse 6 where Yaakov says that any future sons

of Yosef would only inherit as part of Ephraim and Menashe.

For purposes of counting tribes and for purposes of inheritance of the land, Yaakov moved

the firstborn status from Reuven to Yosef. And perhaps due to the fact that Yosef did not, in

22 years, send word to his father, Yaakov made both of these honors pass right through

Yosef directly to his sons.