Parashat Vayechi
Rabbi’s Drosh
In this week’s Parasha we read about Yaacov (Jacob) blessing his children. However before he blesses his children, he blesses his grandchildren Ephraim and Mannashe. In turn, when we come to bless our children with the traditional priestly blessing, we bless the boys to be like Ephraim and Mannashe.
For girls, we bless like the foremothers (Sarah, Rivka, Rachel and Leah) so one would think that we would bless our boys to be like Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaacov, so why Ephraim and Mannashe instead?
There are two beautiful explanations.
One is that Ephraim and Mannashe grew up in Egypt, surrounded by Egyptian culture, idol worship and influences and yet remained strong in their Jewish identity and close to Hashem.
The second lies in the relationship the brothers had with each other. Ephraim and Mannashe are the first brothers in our family history to get on with each other! Avraham had Ishmael and Yitzchak, who were not only in conflict, but whose descendants are still in conflict today. Yitzchak had the twins Esav and Yaacov who had such a difficult relationship that Yaacov feared for his life. Yaacov’s sons so despised their brother Yosef that they sold him into slavery. Yet in the generation of Yosef’s children, Ephraim and Mannashe, this pattern of brotherly hatred is broken.
There are two blessings which are inherent when we bless our children to be like Ephraim and Mannashe.
We bless our children to stay connected to their Judaism no matter what the outside influences and we also bless our children to have brotherly love for one-another. These are the two special blessings we wish to leave you - our beloved community - with too.
May Hashem bless the members of the Auckland Hebrew Congregation to stay connected to Judaism and to all be blessed with brotherly love for one another
Thank you to the Boards we have served under and the staff and volunteers with whom we have worked and to the members of the Auckland Hebrew Congregation. It has been an honour to be your Rabbi and Rebbetzin and we will miss you all so much.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Friedler