We don’t bless our kids to reach their potential…but to surpass it!
In Parshat Vayechi, we have the famous moment where Yaakov blesses Yoseph’s children with the immortal words “By you shall Israel bless saying, ‘May G-d make you like Ephraim and like Menashe’” [Bereshit 48:20]. This has become the blessing that parents give to their children [for girls, using “… Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel and Leah”], on Erev Yom Kippur, and for many people every Shabbat night before making a blessing on the wine and on the challah.
There are many explanations as to why it is that, of all the great personalities from the Torah and of all the illustrious personages in Jewish history, it is specifically Ephraim and Menashe who were chosen to be the eternal role models for Jewish male children. Why not Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov? Why not Moshe and Aharon?
Rav Yaakov Weinberg zt”l once gave the following beautiful explanation. Every parent hopes to see the blessing that their children reach their full potential in life. But Ephraim and Menashe did something that was better than that. They exceeded their potential. They became more than that which their father could have reasonably expected from them. They achieved a status equal to that of the twelve children of Yaakov. And so, part of Yaakov’s blessing to these grandchildren was that the two of them would replace Yoseph, and assume a status equal to that of Yaakov’s other sons in the tribal divisions of the Jewish people. Rav Weinberg therefore understood that the meaning of the blessing, “May G-d make you like Ephraim and Menashe” is actually, “May you exceed your potential beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.”
What an amazing message to take with us as we finish off Sefer Bereshit this Shabbat, as well as get ready to close up 2018. Our hope for 2019 shouldn’t just be to try hard, or to have a good year, but to have a year of growth that exceeds our current potential!
If that is what we hope for our children, then that is definitely what Hashem hopes for His children, for us.
Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Lipner