It is customary on Shabbat to bless your children. After the candles are lit the parents place their hands on the head of their son and say “May God inspire you to live like Ephraim and Menasseh”. This is quoted from Mishkan T’fillah, our new prayer book. I say to my son on Shabbat when he is home, ” may you grow to be like Ephraim and Menasseh, a credit your people.” For the girls we say, also quoted from Mishkan T’fillah,”May God inspire you to live like Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah”. Of, course there is no Biblical verse speaking of blessing one’s daughters but there is for blessing one’s sons.
The Rabbis felt it was important to bless the sons of Israel because in this week’s Torah portion, Vayechi, Jacob blesses the sons of Joseph, his grandsons, Ephraim and Menasseh. That is why we bless or children because of what Jacob did. However, it is a little weird that we use this verse as the reason for the blessing because there have been many blessings cited before this verse.
The question is why do we always bless our sons with the names of Ephraim and Menasseh. The Rabbi say it is because they are the first siblings to get along with each other. Between them there seems to be no envy or distrust, they love each other. Joseph seems to have established a loving home. All of us want to model our families after the family of Joseph. As we say in Judaism ” ken y’hi ratsone”, let it be so.
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