{"id":40419,"date":"2018-09-18T00:40:40","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T21:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=40419"},"modified":"2022-04-12T17:04:33","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T14:04:33","slug":"whats-so-special-about-josephs-sons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/whats-so-special-about-josephs-sons\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s So Special About Joseph\u2019s Sons"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cWith you, Israel will bless, saying, \u2018May God make you like Ephraim and like Menasheh,\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And so it is to this day. But what\u2019s so special about Joseph\u2019s sons?<\/span><\/p>\n

The answer is in the names of Joseph\u2019s two sons and the circumstances of their birth. Joseph had become the prototype of the successful assimilated Jew. \u00a0He had risen to a position of power in Egypt and married a high-born Egyption wife. He had no reason to think he would ever see his birth family again, and little desire to go looking for them. After all, they had sold him into slavery. Even his father\u2019s role in it was unclear.<\/span><\/p>\n

Joseph named his first born Menashe as a sign that \u201cGod has caused me to forget [nishani<\/em>] all my toil and all my father\u2019s house,\u201d and his second, Ephraim, for \u201cGod has made me fruitful [hifrani<\/em>] in the land of my affliction.\u201d Joseph\u2019s sons would have been raised as Egyptian noblemen, given an Egyptian education, and grown up rubbing shoulders with the upper crust of Egyptian society. And yet, Jacob later takes Joseph\u2019s sons as his own, giving them an inheritance with his own sons.<\/span><\/p>\n

We often say: \u201cYou are Jewish if your grandchildren are Jewish.\u201d Of all the tests we have to face as a people, none are as difficult as the test of success. More Jews have been lost to assimilation in those countries that welcome Jews than have been lost to pogroms, massacres, and genocide in hostile lands.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of all of Jacob\u2019s descendants, only Joseph had faced the test of success in a foreign culture. Only he had lived in a secular society and maintained his cultural identity. Perhaps, with the wisdom of old age, Jacob saw that Joseph\u2019s inoculation to the pleasures of Egyptian society had immunized his sons as well; they too would resist the pressures of assimilation and remain true to their heritage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only with the assurance that we can live among strangers and remain true to ourselves can we grow from a family to a nation. For this reason, Joseph\u2019s sons, Menashe and Ephraim, represent the future of the Jewish nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

And this is what we wish upon our own children: that they rise to the challenge of being a light to the nations\u2014living and working in the broader world\u2014but never losing the special connection to their heritage and mission.<\/span><\/p>\n

(Cover art: Rembrandt – Jacob Blessing the Children of Joseph,\u00a0WGA19117<\/span>: <\/span>https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jacob_Blessing_the_Sons_of_Joseph)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":40420,"id":40420,"title":"Jacob Blessing Ephraim and Manasseh, by Rembrandt","filename":"Rembrandt_-_Jacob_Blessing_the_Children_of_Joseph_-_WGA19117.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Rembrandt_-_Jacob_Blessing_the_Children_of_Joseph_-_WGA19117.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/whats-so-special-about-josephs-sons\/jacob-blessing-ephraim-and-manasseh-by-rembrandt\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jacob-blessing-ephraim-and-manasseh-by-rembrandt","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":40419,"date":"2018-09-17 21:40:19","modified":"2022-04-12 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