What are we supposed to think?
In the Torah, as in
ancient Near Eastern law and customs generally, there is a preference for the
first born son. We have seen in the Torah’s
narrative that inheritance rights favour the firstborn. This includes the inheritance of property,
but also the intangible elements of legacy.
This is a powerful social
force, which survives even today. Many
grown children who weren’t first in their family’s birth order, can tell of
growing up with lower expectations from their parents. Or some other manifestation of preference for
the first born. In the counseling world,
intake forms for treatment ask the patient’s place in the birth order in their family
of origin. It is important information
for the counselor when trying to understand family system issues. Parents of multiple children of the same
gender seldom are aware that they are perpetuating this preference. (I’m not even going to touch the phenomenon
of gender preference, usually for the masculine! Another drash, for another day.)
So when the Torah,
which the devout amongst us consider an expression of G-d’s will expresses this
preference, it clearly means something.
Yet as the Torah’s narrative
unfolds, we see instance after instance where the second or subsequent
son in the birth order gets the preference.
And when that happens, there is no clue that G-d does not
approve. We saw it in the Esau-Jacob
competition, where the twins’ mother, Rebecca, was seen conspiring against her
husband Isaac to ensure the primacy of the younger one. We saw it in the next generation, where Jacob
showed preference for not even son number two, but number eleven in
birth order! Of 12 sons, Joseph was
older only than Benjamin.
And now, in the 48th
chapter of Genesis, we see it again.
In this week’s Torah reading we see
the hand of Jacob changing the custom again for the next generation. His son Yosef has brought his two sons, Menasseh
and Ephraim, to be blessed by their grandfather. Jacob crosses his arms, blessing the younger,
Ephraim with his right hand whilst he blesses the firstborn, Menasseh with his
left. This may seem like a minor
variance, but it is powerfully loaded in a way that is not immediately apparent
to the casual reader today. The right
hand is the hand of spiritual primacy, the one preferred for the performance of
mitzvoth. Joseph presents his sons to
his father with Menasseh on his left so that the older boy will be on Jacob’s
right. His intention is clearly that Jacob
will place his right hand on the older boy’s head. But Jacob does the opposite. And the text makes it clear that Jacob is
making change deliberately. When Joseph
points out his father’s ‘error,’ Jacob gently rebukes his son and predicts that
the younger son, Ephraim, is destined for primacy.
This might seem, again to today’s
casual reader, not such a big deal. Jacob
blesses both grandsons and tells their father, Joseph: [Menasseh] too will become a people, and
he too will become great; yet his younger brother shall become greater than his
offspring[‘s fame] will fill the nations.
So if both boys’ progeny will become great nations, what is the
offence if their grandfather has predicted – some would say ordained –
that the younger one will be greater?
Speaking as a second son myself, I would say…big deal!
And it is a big deal. Since these aberrations of the expected order
are preserved in the Torah, we do well to look for a lesson in them, to not think
them random. If the Torah as a script of
G-d’s will, there is a sacred lesson in all this.
Writing these words, reminds me of
something that happened to me about a year and a half ago. I thought I was at the end of the line in
Australia; my visa would expire the next day despite all logic that the
Department of Immigration should have allowed me to stay: in order to attend my Fair Work hearing
scheduled for several weeks later, and in order for Jewish Journeys to complete
the application and be considered as my new sponsor. A few days before, I had written one final
e-mail to the agent in Hobart that was handling my case, requesting the
extension, and got no response. After a
talk the previous day with the immigration phone enquiry people, I had gone up
to the office in Brisbane.
Conceding that we were leaving
Australia very soon, we were going to get a bridging visa to give us a little
more time to get our things packed and shipped, and to book flights. There was a line waiting at the reception
counter in the office. We were almost at
the front of the line, when my mobile rang.
It was the agent in Hobart, calling to let me know that they’d
reconsidered my case. I could stay in
the country long enough to attend my hearing, and for Jewish Journeys’
application to come in and be considered.
Had the phone call come five minutes later, I would have already
cancelled my visa by getting the bridging visa.
Talking about it a while later with
my good friend Gordon, I intoned the well-known expression: G-d works in strange ways. Gordon’s response was: Rabbi, G-d works in G-d’s ways! In other words, there’s nothing ‘strange’
about how G-d works. It only seems
strange, measured against our own sensibilities.
And I think that this preference, on
one hand, for the firstborn and the repeated abrogating of the principle on the
other hand, represents an example of this principle at work. ‘The Rules’ are set, and followed, except
when they’re not. Because The Rules make
sense…except when they don’t. In the
case of Esau and Jacob, it was not clear at the time – except to their mother –
that Jacob was the one who would successfully carry the promise of Abraham to
the next generation. At the time, we can
only see that Rebecca favours Yaakov because he seems to fit her image of how a
son should act. But as the Torah’s
narrative unfolds, we see why this is true.
And then Jacob in turn chooses his eleventh son, Joseph, as the
favoured one. In doing so, he seems only
to be expressing his preference for his wife Rachel over Leah. His decision causes conflict among his
sons. But subsequent events show that Rebecca’s
choice is nothing less than divinely-inspired as Joseph ends up saving the
entire family from famine, as well as modelling the important principle of
forgiving the truly repentant. And now Jacob
is once more ‘out of order’ in prophesying that the second of Joseph’s sons,
Ephraim, will outshine his older brother.
As the narrative continues to unfold, we will see how it comes to light
that Jacob, in showing this favour, was again inspired in the act.
One more important thing that we
learn from this week’s reading. The
blessing that we impart when we bless one another on Shabbat evenings, alludes
to Jacob’s blessing of his two grandsons.
ישימך אלקים כאפריים וכי מנשה – yesim’cha Elokim
ke-Efrayim vechi-Menasheh - May G-d make you as Ephraim and Menasseh. When we invoke this blessing, we invoke Jacob’s
aspirations regarding his two son’s two sons.
He saw different futures for them, and that vision made him bless the
two out of order – in the placement of his hands and in the invoking of their
names – but he saw each one of them as a gift from G-d and as an important link
in what would become the chain of tradition.
Shabbat shalom.
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