ויאמר ליוסף, a third person told him. We find similar constructions, the subject not only not being named but not being identified at all, in verse 2 of our chapter, i.e. ויגד. The Torah does not bother to inform us who was the one that conveyed this information.

וישב על המטה. His feet touched the ground. This is why the Torah, when Joseph brought his children to Yaakov to be blessed, had to write: “he took them out from between his knees.” (verse 12) Another reason why the Torah mentioned these trivial sounding details, was to inform us that Yaakov still possessed the physical strength to pronounce all his final announcements with his feet firmly placed on the ground. It was only after he did not have anything else to say that he put his feet back on the bed in preparation for dying (49,33). That motion is comparable to what is described in Deuteronomy 22,2 as ואספת אל תוך ביתך, “bring it into your house,” i.e. The verb אסף, also appears in a similar sense in Judges 19,18 ואין איש מאסף אותו,”and there is no one willing to take me in.”

נראה אלי בלוז, when I returned from Padan Aram. (Compare 35,11 אני א-ל שדי, פרה ורבה)

ועתה שני בניך וגו', seeing that G’d has given me the land of Canaan as a possession, I can make you the firstborn with the right to receive two portions of that land. This means that in effect you will receive the share of two tribes. Your sons will receive an allocation equal to the combined allocation of Reuven and Shimon.

עד בואי, before I arrived. We had been informed in 41,3 that two sons had been born to Joseph before the onset of the famine, i.e. before Yaakov came to Egypt.

ומולדתך, your children or grandchildren who will be born or have been born after my arrival in Egypt (during the last 17 years). על שם אחיהם יקראו, they will have the same status as their brothers, i.e. they will not each be considered as the founding father of one of the tribes, but בתי אבות, heads of family groupings within the tribe they belong to (Menashe or Ephrayim). All the seventy souls included in the count of people descending to Egypt with Yaakov, whether his sons or his grandsons, became the heads of such family groups. And this was of relevance when the land of Israel was distributed by Joshua. The Talmud Baba Batra 118 discusses this in detail, basing itself on Numbers 26,21 mentioning such families as Peretz and Chetzron, etc., as well as the members of the family of Elon and Ard and Naamon mentioned in verses 40 and 53-55 respectively in that same chapter. What applied in those situations would also apply to children of Joseph born after Yaakov’s arrival in Egypt.

ואני בבואי מפדן, on the same route after G’d had given me His blessing, מתה עלי רחל, while I was still on the same route, this is why I had to bury her there while on the way. There did not present itself an opportunity to bury her next to Leah in the cave of Machpelah. Yaakov elaborated on this now so that Joseph would not consider him as having been criminally negligent in not according his mother the kind of burial she was entitled to.

וירא ישראל, even though we have been told that Yaakov could not see well due to his age (verse 10), it is possible for people whose eyesight has become dimmed to recognise the silhouette of a person without being able to distinguish his facial features sufficiently to identify them. When G’d told Moses that it was impossible for man to “see” Him (Exodus 33,20), He did not mean that man is unable to see any aspect of G’d. This is why the prophet Michyahu could claim to have “seen” G’d (Kings I 22,19) without this being a contradiction to what is written in Exodus 33,20. [thus invalidating King Menashe ordering the execution of the prophet Isaiah for being a false prophet based on his saying that he had “seen” (Isaiah 6,1) G’d. Ed.]

בזה; in this kingdom.

ראה, as if the Torah had written ראות. We find a similar construction in Genesis 50,20 where the words עשה כיום הזה mean the same as if the Torah had written עשות כיום הזה.

לא פיללתי, I never “judged,” in my heart. The word פילול whenever it occurs describes judgment. One example is Psalms 106,30) describing Pinchas’ state of mind before he slew Zimri as ויפלל , describing the manner in which avenged G’d’s honour which had been defiled by Zimri. (Numbers 25,7) Judgment, דין, and נקמה, retribution, avenging, are two words describing opposite sides of the same coin.

את אפרים בימינו, in order to place him on Israel’s left side, (seeing he was the younger).

שכל את ידיו, as if the Torah had written שכל, both the letters ש and כ with the vowels kametz, resulting in sachal, meaning something distorted, bent out of shape.

כי מנשה הבכור, and Yaakov was well aware even without being able to recognise the sons’ features, that Joseph would position his firstborn son on his father’s right side. Seeing that he wanted to place his right hand on the younger son, Ephrayim, he had to cross his hands to accomplish this.

ויברך את יוסף, blessings bestowed on one’s children are a blessing bestowed on the father.

ויקרא בהם שמי, may their seed and the seed of their see live.

וידגו, the root is of the same category as the ones which lose the last root letter in the future tense, such as בכה, “to cry,” ויבכו, “they will cry,” or שבה, “to capture,” וישבו, “they will capture.”

כי ישית, before he had started blessing them (Verse 7) Joseph had noticed that his father had crossed his hands. ויאמר יוסף אל אביו לא כן אבי, it is not correct to translate this line as: “you are not doing the correct thing.” If that were what Joseph had had in mind he would not have spoken so dismissively, but would have asked his father why he was doing this.What Joseph said to his father must be understood as follows: “the sons have not been positioned by me in the order in which you think, by my not paying attention who should be on your right, i.e. the eldest on your right, etc., but I have made sure that my firstborn is already on your right and his brother on your left. There is therefore no need for you to bend your arms, etc.”

לא כן אבי, I did not do as you thought but placed my firstborn on your right and the younger one on your left. Yaakov replied that he was aware of this (verse 19) because “I know that you are a wise man and would see to it that your sons had been placed in the manner in which you intended them to receive their blessings. However, I plan to bless the younger one who is on your right with my right hand and I withdrew my left hand from his head in order to be able to do this.” להסיר אותה מעל ראש אפרים, and to transfer it (my left hand) to על ראש מנשה, to the head of Menashe. Whenever the verb הסר appears it is written in a sort of abbreviated syntax, the predicate which is supposed to follow it or precede it being omitted. Some examples are: Judges 4,18 סורה אלי אל תירא, the meaning being סורה משם לפנות אלי, “turn away from there in order to turn towards me.” A similar example of this is found in Genesis 19,3 ויסורו אליו, where the precedingמשם לבא, “from there in order to come” is omitted and the reader has to fill it in by understanding the context .

ואולם, “but, however.”

בך יברך ישראל, each Israelite his respective son.

וישם את אפרים לפני מנשה, he did this not physically, but by mentioning Ephrayim’s name in the blessing ahead of the name of Menashe. The expression (verb) שימה, or לשום respectively can be used with words (intangibles) as well as with people and tangible objects. A prominent example of it being applied to intangible concepts is Exodus 21,1 ואלה המשפטים אשר תשים לפניהם, “and these are the laws, judicial concepts, you are to place before them.” Or. In Deuteronomy 4,41 וזאת התורה אשר שם משה, “and this is the Torah which Moses placed, etc.” The reference was not to the Torah scroll, but to what was written in it. Also in Deuteronomy 31,19 the line שימה בפיהם, does not refer to something being placed in the mouth of the people, such as food, but it refers to the words in the written Torah being fed to the people as if food fed through their mouths.

הנה אנכי מת, although I am about to die, I am aware that after my death. והיה אלוקים עמכם והשיב אתכם אל ארץ אבותיכם, G’d will be with you and at the completion of 400 years predicted to Avraham will bring you back to the land of your fathers.

ואני, and what I say to you now refers to that land, נתתי לך, I have assigned to you, שכם אחד, a share על אחיך, over and beyond the shares which you will divide with your brothers in territory which I and my offspring will conquer from the Emorite in the future with my sword and bow, (in the wars conducted by Joshua). [The author, whose exegesis of the past tense used in Yaakov’s statement is most remarkable, now deals with possible objections that could be raised against his interpretation of Yaakov’s words. Ed.] Even though it is written in the Book of Joshua 24,12 לא בחרבך ולא בקשתך, “not with your sword nor with your bow (did you drive out the Emorite, but because G’d sent scorpions and the like against these people,” this verse does not contradict what Yaakov said here. Firstly, these scorpions did not cross the river Jordan, so how can we understand Joshua quoting G’d as saying “I have sent the scorpions ahead of you to drive out the two Kings of the Emorite, etc.” (same verse)? When reading the words quoted in Joshua before, we must put the stress on the pronoun endings of the words בחרבך בקשתך, i.e. “your sword, your bow. Joshua meant that although on the face of it appeared that your prowess with the sword and bow accounts for your successful conquest, your success was due to the merit of your ancestor Yaakov. The effect of that merit was equivalent to the effect of well trained archers and swordsmen using their physical weapons.