וַיְהִי אַחֲרֵי הַדְּבָרִים הָאֵלֶּה וַיֹּאמֶר לְיוֹסֵף הִנֵּה אָבִיךָ חֹלֶה וַיִּקַּח אֶת־שְׁנֵי בָנָיו עִמּוֹ אֶת־מְנַשֶּׁה וְאֶת־אֶפְרָיִם׃

Some time afterward, Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he took with him his two sons, Menashe and Ephraim. (48:1)

Yaakov speaks to Yosef and then says regarding his grandsons ,קָחֶם־נָא אֵלַי וַאֲבָרְכֵם, “Bring them to me that I may bless them (48:9).”

Yosef had his older son, Menashe, stand at Yaakov’s right so that Yaakov should place his right hand on his head when giving the blessing. Where the right hand lies signifies the greater blessing. He had his younger son, Ephraim, stand at Yaakov’s left so that Yaakov would place his left hand on him during the blessing. But Yaakov had other plans.

וַיִּשְׁלַח יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת־יְמִינוֹ וַיָּשֶׁת עַל־רֹאשׁ אֶפְרַיִם וְהוּא הַצָּעִיר וְאֶת־שְׂמֹאלוֹ עַל־רֹאשׁ מְנַשֶּׁה שִׂכֵּל אֶת־יָדָיו כִּי מְנַשֶּׁה הַבְּכוֹר׃

But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head—thus crossing his hands—although Manasseh was the first-born. (48:14)

Yaakov explains his actions that, "his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall be plentiful enough for nations." Rashi explains that this refers to Yehoshua (Joshua) the successor to Moshe as leader of the Jewish people and whose reputation would spread throughout the world.

But instead of switching his hands, why didn’t Yaakov have them switch positions?

The commentary of Chizkuni translates the words שִׂכֵּל אֶת־יָדָיו (which we translated above as crossing his hands) that he placed his hands by using his intelligence. The word שִׂכֵּל is related to the word שכל (pronounced sei-chel) which means intelligence. Yaakov was very calculated when he crossed his hands. Switching positions is precisely what Yaakov did not want to do. Chizkuni writes, "He did not want to embarrass Menashe by relegating him to his left side, seeing that after all he was Joseph’s firstborn, and he deserved to be treated with respect on account of this." Now did this completely alleviate Menashe’s discomfort of being passed over for the greater blessing? I would argue not. But it was still important to make that discomfort less painful.

There are times when we will cause disappointment to others at no fault of our own. A person may apply for a position and is rejected for a legitimate reason. Rejection hurts. And that should include doing the rejecting because we should feel the pain of a person going through that kind of disappointment. But as a (partially translated) Yiddish saying goes, a krechtz (that’s Yiddish for a groan) is not enough. We have to think of a way to actually lessen the pain.

Yaakov taught us that even when another person has to experience some kind of indignation we have to figure out a way to uphold that person's dignity as much as possible.

Shabbat Shalom,
Yitzchak