Spiritual and
Ethical Issues in the B'reishit Stories Yaakov Blesses his sons [2] by Dr. Meir Tamari "The first born is the recognized representative of the family and has the responsibility of such. As such he receives a double portion of the inheritance and this would indicate that material power and spirituality should go hand in hand, yet the history of the world shows that in reality there is constant conflict between material power and godly spirituality. The spiritual aspect of the firstborn is disregarded and advantage taken of the material preference. Judaism, however, insists that the material power and the spiritual should always go hand in hand" (Rabbi S. R. Hirsch). Many mitzvot, in order to teach us that the real source of everything in our lives does not lie in birthrights, accident, luck, clever- ness or nature - but in G-d, require that the "Reishit" be devoted to holiness; b'chorim [pidyon haben, peter rechem], reshit hagez, bikurim and orlah. So when- ever the ideal integration of power and spirituality is not observed, then we find that throughout Tanach the b'chorim are disregarded. Kayin is rejected and Hevel accepted, Yishmael gave place to Yitschak, and Eisav to Yaakov, Reuven to Yosef, Menashe to Efrayim, Aharon to Moshe, and Gideon was a younger son and his clan the poorest in Menashe, while David the founder of Jewish kingship was the youngest of his family. Yosef saw that his father gave precedence to Efrayim and protested, since Menashe was the first born. He feared that this was a replay of the love and favor shown by Yaakov to him that led to so much jealousy and suspicion between the brothers and had ultimately resulted in his sale and the descent of Beit Yaakov to Egypt. In the case of Efrayim and Menashe, however, there was no hint of the younger son supplanting the elder, but simply of achieving greater spiritual and therefore leadership power. Menashe and Efrayim both were given flags and separate places in Israel's encampment and wanderings in the desert, both received their share in the tribal allocations of Eretz Yisrael, yet Efrayim was destined to be greater. He was the leader of the three tribe group in the desert, and he preceded Menashe in the order of the korbanot at chanukat hamishkan. The whole of the nation is sometimes referred to as Efrayim. "This greatness was not a prophecy of numerical superiority since we know from the various censuses in the Torah that the tribe of Menashe was larger than Efrayim. Rather Yaakov wished to demonstrate the principle of the priority of quality over quantity" (Meshech Chochma). "Nevertheless, the verse (48:20) tells that Yaakov put Efrayim before Menashe, this was not for the honor of Efrayim, but rather out of respect for Menashe. In other verses we find that to put before somebody means to honor them. So Efrayim was enjoined to respect his older brother. Yaakov wishes to instruct Efrayim that despite his future greatness he should be careful of his elder brother's honor" (Rabbeu Bachya). Halakhically, the eldest brother has to be honored, a derivate of kibud Av vaEim. "In Parshat Nitzavim we read: "You are standing this day before Hashem, all of you, the heads of your tribes, your elders and your officers", whereas Yehoshua reversed the order, placing the elders first. Moshe, seeing as Israel would have to endure long periods of galut outside Eretz Yisrael, gave precedence to the communal leaders who would be responsible for dealing with the governments and populace of those galuyot. Yehoshua, on the other hand was preparing the people for life in their own homeland, and there the leadership of the elders and sages would have to be paramount, therefore he gave them precedence" (Yerushalmi, Horayot 3). "What was the kernel of the machloket between Yosef and Yaakov over the question of the precedence of Efrayim over Menashe? They both knew full well who Yosef's first-born was and they both knew of the inability of the Tribes to subjugate themselves to authority that had led to Mechirat Yosef. However, as we may see from the names Efrayim and Menashe, their differences lay in the proper sequence in Divine worship of the verse: "Sur mei-ra va'asei tov". Yosef named his first born Menashe, as Hashem had enabled him to separate himself from the evil that befell him. Efrayim was named after the fruitfulness that Hashem had given, asei tov. So Yosef held that sur mei-ra, departing from evil ways, has to come before one is able to do good and righteousness. Yaakov taught that the opposite was the proper way for ones avodat Hashem" (Shem MiShmuel). The Shem Mi Shmuel sees the same question behind the machloket of Bet Shammai and Bet Hillel regarding Chanuka. Shammai holds that sur mi-ra has precedence and since the first efforts are the most difficult and require most effort, we should first light 8 candles and then descend each night. Bet Hillel, asei tov, hold that at the outset sur mei-ra is impossible, whereas a little asei tov is within our reach, so first one should light 1 candle and then increasing the asei tov we also add lights each night. However, at the end of days, when we are more holy, the agreed halacha will be like Beit Shammai. [The Parshat Yitro Homepage]
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