Vayechi 2019
In this week’s Parsha, Vayichi, we have a familiar story of blessings bestowed upon two brothers. According to the Torah the first born receives a double portion and is meant to be the leader and even the Jewish people itself, as a leader among the nations, is in this sense called by God, “My firstborn.” Yet, in each of the preceding generations the younger receives a more primary blessing than the older, and here too Jacob structures the blessings to his grandchildren in this same way. As the Torah states:
“Joseph took the two of them, Ephraim with his right hand—to Israel’s left—and Manasseh with his left hand—to Israel’s right—and brought them close to him (to Israel his father). But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head—thus crossing his hands—although Manasseh was the first-born. And he blessed Joseph, saying, “The God in whose ways my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who has been my shepherd from my birth to this day. The Angel who has redeemed me from all harm— Bless the lads. In them may my name be recalled, And the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, And may they be teeming multitudes upon the earth.” When Joseph saw that his father was placing his right hand on Ephraim’s head, he thought it wrong; so he took hold of his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s. “Not so, Father,” Joseph said to his father, “for the other is the first-born; place your right hand on his head.” But his father objected, saying, “I know, my son, I know. He too shall become a people, and he too shall be great. Yet his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall be plentiful enough for nations.””
Why does Jacob do this? After all he does not know his two grandchildren, Ephrayim and Minashe, at all. In fact, he does not even recognize them when Joseph brings them for the blessing. Why not assume the first born, Minashe, will be the primary leader as is expected and give him the greater blessing? Isn't this different from previous generations in which the natures of the two children were known and one was clearly meant to lead the Jewish people and the other was not? Here they both seem fitting for Jewish leadership, both are tribes and both are equally Joseph’s children from the same mother.
Jacob is not appointing the younger as the primary leader as the result of analyzing their potential or their personalities. Perhaps the idea is that the younger, though it flies in the face of the Torah’s articulated paradigm, must be the leader. I am suggesting that paradoxically, it is precisely because the older is expected to be the leader, that the younger is always more fitting to be that leader.
What kind of leadership do the Jewish people value? Abrham, the first Jew, is called “Haivri” which means “from the other side” or “the outsider”. Perhaps the Torah says the firstborn should be the leader precisely to set up a structure in which there will be an insider and an outsider, someone, the eldest, who is seemingly destined to be the leader, someone who inherits the leadership, and someone, the younger sibling, who does not, someone who is a kind of usurper. Perhaps, the entire notion of primogeniture exists in order for there to be a leader who is not predestined to be the leader, a leader who must forge their way around and over the expected leader - to become the leader who is an outsider. Maybe there is something powerful about outsider leadership that the Torah wants us to cultivate. And so in every generation of our ancestors, until the Jewish people are established, it is never the eldest who is the leader but the younger, and always as an outcome of struggle, confusion and conflict.
The lesson for us I think is that the unexpected is often more powerful than the predictable. Things may not be going the way we had hoped, the way we planned, but precisely in that lies a great strength. The strength of the novel, the unstructured, the creative now. Our lives today are indeed unexpected. Things may not be going as we had planned them. But if we can be attuned, if we can be grateful, if we can be open to the wonders of the unexpected present, perhaps though there may be struggle and confusion, there may also be gifts to be dusted off beneath the rubble.
