וַיְבָרֲכֵם בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא לֵאמוֹר בְּךָ יְבָרֵךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל לֵאמֹר יְשִׂמְךָ אֱלֹהִים כְּאֶפְרַיִם וְכִמְנַשֶּׁה

So he (Yaakov) blessed them (Yosef’s two sons Ephraim and Menashe) that day, saying, “By you shall Israel invoke blessings, saying: G-d make you like Ephraim and Menashe.” (48:20)

Our blessing is that our children should grow up to be as great as Ephraim and Menashe who were grandsons of Yaakov and not his sons but nonetheless were worthy enough to be counted as two of the twelve tribes of Israel. The words “G-d make you” though are troubling. G-d doesn’t make us great. We have to make the proper choices between good and evil and develop ourselves into great people. So what does “G-d make you” mean?

Rabbi Dovid Feinstein, of blessed memory, explained this based on a powerful principle found in Talmud Kiddushin 30b that states, “A person’s (evil) inclination overpowers him every day, and seeks to kill him…. And if not for the fact that the Holy One, Blessed be He, assists each person in battling his evil inclination, he could not overcome it.”

Essentially we are vulnerable to the temptations put before us by our inclination towards physical pleasures. Our only hope to succeed is a dose of Divine assistance that gives us the shot in the arm we need to meet those challenges.

Rabbi Feinstein gave the following example to illustrate this assistance. A person decides to start keeping Shabbat. Closing the business he could run on Shabbat and generate more income is challenging. Divine assistance for this person could take the form of increased income during the week so that being closed on Shabbat isn’t as challenging. Divine assistance forms an environment that is more conducive to Shabbat observance.

Here’s my example of Divine assistance. You are really upset with someone and you are ready to send an angry email. Internally you’re struggling, “Should I send it or keep the peace?” Finally, you cave in to your anger and decide to send it. You’re about to press send… when the phone rings.

“Hello Pablo?”

“Who?” you respond annoyingly.

“Oh, sorry. Wrong number.”

Back to sending your angry email. But now that you’ve been interrupted by that phone call you realize that you have another chance to consider sending the email or not. That phone call is Hashem’s assistance to you to overcome this challenge.

If there was anyone who needed Divine assistance in dealing with the challenges of the evil inclination it was Ephraim and Menashe. Here were two young men who were born and raised in the royal trappings of the idolatrous and immoral Egyption society. They had never even seen the holy environment of their grandfather Yaakov’s house. How could they spiritually survive and become worthy of becoming counted as tribes of Israel? It must be that they were given a healthy dose of Divine assistance and they utilized it!

Therefore our blessing that G-d should make our children like Ephraim and Menashe means that they too should receive all the Divine assistance they need to overcome the challenges of the evil inclination and grow to become a true source of nachas for us and Klal Yisroel!

Shabbat Shalom!
Yitzchak