More and Better Blessings

It is interesting to see how the blessings given from father to son develop in a certain trajectory over the course of the book of Bereshit/Genesis in the lives of the Avot/Patriarchs. The blessings are better and more abundant with each generation.

Abraham does not bless his son Isaac – in fact, the only recorded words they exchange are during the Akedah. Isaac does not return with Abraham from the Akedah (it states in Genesis 22:19 that “Abraham returned to his servants” – the absence of Isaac being quite notable – there are many midrashic explanations for why this is, but suffice it to say that they go their separate ways). Even when Abraham sends his servant to find a wife for Isaac, Abraham seems not to have told Isaac what was happening – the text states that “The servant told Isaac all the things he had done” (Gen. 24:66). It is also notable that, for the marriage, Isaac brings Rebecca into the tent of his mother Sarah – with no mention of Abraham. The rupture between father and son after Abraham attempted to murder his son Isaac – even though it was stopped by the angel – is complete.

When Abraham dies, the text states that “After the death of Abraham, G!d blessed his son Isaac” (Gen 25:11) – and the rabbinic commentators state that, although G!d gave Abraham the power to bless, he failed to bless Isaac, and therefore G!d has to give the blessing Abraham was supposed to have made, which is why the text refers to Isaac as “his son” in this verse. It should be noted that there is also no mention of Abraham blessing Ishmael or any of the children he had with Keturah, although he gives the latter gifts before sending them away (Gen 25:6).

Isaac has only one good blessing to give, with two sons. Esau is meant to get the blessing, but after Jacob sends him out to hunt some game to prepare for him, Rebecca engages in subterfuge by having Jacob prepare a goat and putting the skin of the goat on his arms to seem hairy like his brother. Some have argued that Isaac knows what was going on, since he even acknowledges that “the voice is the voice of Jacob, yet the hands are the hands of Esau” (Gen. 27:22). But regardless of whether or not he knows on some level that Jacob is getting the blessing meant for Esau, there is only one good blessing. The consolation prize blessing that Esau ends up with was not really much of a blessing. And similar to the rupture between Abraham and Isaac, there is a long-term rupture between Jacob and Esau. The text suggests that it is healed when Esau kisses Jacob long after their parents’ death and they weep together – but there is even midrash that suggests that he tries to bite Jacob and that it is not a true reconciliation (Gen 33:4).

Jacob has twelve sons and he has more than one good blessing to give – but he also uses the opportunity to chew some of the sons out for their past behavior from many years earlier. By my reading, four of the blessings are “bad blessings” (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Issachar – four of Leah’s six children), five are “good blessings” (Judah and Zebulun from Leah’s sons, Joseph from Rachel’s sons, Naphtali from Bilhah’s sons, and Asher from Zilpah’s sons), while the remaining three I would regard as questions – not obviously good OR bad (Benjamin from Rachel’s sons, Dan from Bilhah’s sons, and Gad from Leah’s sons). (I would also note that Gad’s blessing is used in some versions [said three times!] of the Bedtime Shema as well as being recited after Shacharit as part of the prayer upon leaving the synagogue - and a line that may be part of Dan’s blessing or may be an interpolated utterance of praise immediately afterward [“For Thy salvation I wait, O Lord”] is also said both as part of the bedtime Shema [said three times each of three permutations of the three Hebrew words!!!] and by some both at the beginning and after the conclusion of Shacharit.) So, after no blessing for Isaac and one good blessing and one bad blessing for Isaac’s sons, we’ve moved to a situation where there are good and bad blessings (and perhaps even mixed blessing), but not limited by number, only by character of the sons receiving the blessing. I presented this teaching at an early morning Tikkun Leil Shavuot and someone mentioned in response that perhaps the bad blessings that Jacob gives his sons are instances of appropriate tochechah, or rebuke. To be sure, the sons receiving the bad blessings have done very bad things worthy of rebuke! But Jacob had ample opportunity to rebuke them prior to his deathbed blessings, and I still think that there should be good blessings for all of them at this point, even if there had been rebuke on other occasions. His lack of prior resolution of the relationships – similar to Abraham and Isaac’s relationship (if here caused by his sons and not by the father) is not a positive trait.

Finally, we move to Jacob’s blessing of his grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh. (To be sure, this happens just before the blessing of his twelve sons, but I believe that the blessing represents a generational shift along the trajectory of more and better blessings.) It is interesting that on Friday nights, Jewish parents give their daughters the expected blessing to be like the four recognized matriarchs, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah. (I am among those who believe the list should be expanded to include Bilhah and Zilpah, but that is for another time.) But rather than blessing their sons like the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the blessing is to be like Ephraim and Manasseh. The rabbis comment that this is the case because they are the first generation where the brothers get along with each other in peace. I wonder if this is the case because they are blessed with the same awesome blessing – a blessing that recalls the legacy of Abraham and Isaac:

 

The G!d before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the G!d who hath been my shepherd all my life long unto this day, the angel who hath redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named in them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.

(Genesis 48:15-16)

 

I believe that this blessing is a tikkun, a repair, for the absence, stinginess, and vindictiveness of the blessings of the prior generations – by mentioning Abraham and Isaac and thanking G!d for G!d’s blessings upon his own life, he heals and repairs the harm of their blessings (or absence thereof) as well as the blessings he is about to give his own sons.

 

To be sure, he insists on putting the right hand on the younger son’s head and the left hand on the older son’s head, insisting (as has been the case throughout Genesis) that the younger will be greater than the older. I believe that, looking at the progression of blessings that happens through the generations, we are called by the G!d of blessing to make our own lives full of ever more abundant and better blessings to those with whom we come in contact and the earth and all of its creatures. We are called to make tikkun constantly, for our ancestors and for ourselves, as Jacob does in his blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh. And the first tikkun I would invite us to make is to stop seeing in those we bless as “greater” or “lesser”. My parents were raised in generation where the school systems tried to “correct” left-handedness and force left-handed children to learn to be right-handed – we see this bias in the English language with words from the Latin – “dexterity” comes from the word for “right-handed” and “sinister” comes from the word for “left-handed”. Now, children are allowed to write with the hand they prefer and the gifts of left-handed children are accepted. (I do applaud the Jewish tradition for allowing left-handed people to don tefillin on their right hand and arm, in an early recognition of the value of this diversity.) Maybe we can reframe the left and right hands being on their heads as saying that both the right-hand blessing and the left-hand blessing are equally valuable and necessary – and it is important for Ephraim and Manasseh to each receive the particular blessing that fits their personality – without making it a competition about who is greater and who is lesser. Perhaps, given how they get along in peace, they made this tikkun for themselves.

 

May our lives be full of berachot, of blessings, for ourselves, for others, for our world, and for G!d – may we be ever more open to G!d’s blessings for our lives and G!d’s requests for us to be channels of those blessings for others, and may we constantly make tikkun where it is needed. Amen.