I'd like to share with you some leftovers from last week’s Parasha. My apologies, but they're great lessons. Yaakov Avinu blesses Yosef’s children, and Rashi says the Jewish people are going to bless their children saying, ‘Yesimcha L’chem K’ Ephraim and Menashe.’
The famous question is, why Ephraim and Menashe? Why not Avraham Yitzhak and Yaakov?
And the answer is because Ephraim and Menashe got along. Even though Menashe was the older brother, and Ephraim was the younger brother, and Ephraim was put in front of Menashe, and the whole story with the moving hands and everything, no one opened up their mouth and complained. That's how we want our children to act.
But how do you get there? What's the secret?
Another question, asked by Rav Shmuel Berenbaum is:
If Ephraim was truly the greater of the two, why don't we just bless our children ‘Yesimcha K’Ephraim?’
Why even bring Menashe in? If he's second fiddle, don't I want my children to all be Ephraims?
The answer, where Emunah and Bitachon comes in, is that everybody has a mission in life that only he can do. Only he was given the talent and the tools to do it. No one else can do it but him. Therefore, what Menashe needs to do, Ephraim can't do, and the opposite.
And yes, each one has a special mission and some of the missions are greater. We're not all going to get the same blessing, because we're all different. We all have different qualities and different abilities, but we need all of them. Of course, the heart is more important than the kidney, so to say. But with failed kidneys, you're not going to survive either.
And therefore, we need Ephraim and Menashe. Although we mention Ephraim before Menashe, that is how the beracha comes about.
Each individual child gets the beracha that Hashem should make you like Ephraim and Menashe. That means you have to know that lesson. If you're an Ephraim, you have to know there's a Menashe, and if you’re a Menashe you have to know that each of us can't do what the other can do. Each has to respect the other.
They're equal, because everybody has their job in bringing about Kavod Shamayim. Everyone has their job in fulfilling the end mission. He goes on to say, the pasuk in Yeshaya says, “God takes out by number the host.”
That means He counts every star and everyone has a name. Every star has a name. Every star has a mission. Some stars are bigger, some stars are smaller. But we need all of them. They all have missions. That's why he says the Jewish people are compared to stars. At beginning of Parashat Shemot, Rashi tells us, “Even though we count them during their lifetimes, we count them again, to show how beloved they are. They're like the stars.” Every star has a mission. Every star is an individual.
This is really the ongoing theme from the beginning of the Bereshit.
We had Kayin and Hevel-two brothers. There was a fight. They didn't get along. We had Yishmael and Yitzhak, we had Yaakov and Esav, we had Yosef and the brothers. Eventually, as we discussed, they worked it out in a sense when Yehuda and Yosef joined. But that wasn't long-lived. But our example of the two brothers that worked it out and made it was Ephraim and Menashe.
As we learned last week, their role model was Yosef, who knows Hashem is in charge. He decides missions, He decides positions. And I am not going to gain anything by being jealous of my brother.
That is the beauty of Ephraim and Menashe and that's what we wish for our children, sitting around the table. No sibling rivalry. They all get along. And the only way to get there is by believing this, by believing that everyone has their mission. Everyone has their job, and everyone gets what they need.
Have a wonderful day.