Commentary for Genesis 49:28

וזאת אשר דבר להם אביהם ויברך אתם AND THIS IS IT THAT THEIR FATHER SPOKE UNTO THEM WHEN (literally, and) HE BLESSED THEM — But were there not some of his sons whom he did not bless but whom, on the contrary, he reproached? But this is the explanation of these words: and this is it that their father spake unto them, viz., all that has been said above in this chapter, whether it be blessing or reproach. You might therefore think that he did not bless Reuben, Simeon and Levi at all — Scripture therefore states, “and he blessed them” (i.e. the 12 tribes alluded to at the beginning of the verse) which implies all of them. (Pesikta Rabbati 7).

אשר כברכתו, of what would be their fate in the future, as already mentioned with the words אשר יקרה אתכם “which will happen to you,” in verse 1 of our chapter.

כל אלה שבטי ישראל, the ones Yaakov mentioned here were the true twelve tribes of Israel, the names inscribed on the breastplate of the High Priest as commended to G’d’s special attention. They are also the ones who were mentioned as such at the covenant on Mount Gerizim and Mount Eyval. The twelve stones which Moses erected also symbolised these twelve tribes. Again. Joshua erected 12 stones at the Jordan as well as at Gilgal, and Elijah erected 12 stones at the altar. In none of these instances are Ephrayim and Menashe treated as separate tribes. They only figured as separate tribes when it came to the land distribution, seeing that the tribe of Levi did not share in that.

כל אלה שבטי ישראל שנים עשר, All of these comprise the twelve tribes of Israel. How exactly is the number twelve made up? Is Levi included? If so, the Torah did not include Joseph as more than one tribe, though Jacob had said to him (48,5): "Ephrayim and Menashe shall be to me like Reuben and Shimon." If Levi is not included in the number twelve, as we find for instance when the Israelites were being counted at the beginning of the Book of Numbers when the flags and positions around the Tabernacle were assigned, why was Levi denied his father's blessing? If the reason was that Jacob criticised him and only those who had received blessings were included in the count, why were Reuben and Shimon included seeing they too had been criticised?

כל אלה שבטי ישראל שנים עשר, he had to mention this seeing that Joseph amounted to two tribes, which otherwise would have made us believe that Yaakov envisioned 13 tribes. When it came to the distribution of the land of Canaan there were only 12 tribes, seeing that the tribe of Levi did not share in that land distribution but was allocated only cities in which the Levites were to reside, scattered among all the other tribes.

וזאת אשר דבר להם אבותם, “and this is what their father told them.” This is how he concluded his blessings with the word זאת. Moses in his turn, commenced his blessings with the word זאת, as we know from Deuteronomy

“And this is what their father spoke to them”... referring to everything that was said above. [Rashi is saying] that if not for, “And this is what their father spoke to them,” we would think Yaakov altogether regretted what he had said, and took back his reproach. For it says, “He blessed them,” implying they all [received blessings and not reproaches]. Thus Rashi says, “And this is...” to teach that whatever Yaakov had said remained in force, but he then included them all [in the blessings]. (R. Noson)

Alle diese Stämme Jisraels; es sind zwölf, nicht mehr, nicht weniger, nicht dreizehn, dass etwa Josef für zwei gezählt werde, auch nicht elf, dass etwa Reuben ausfiele; und sie sind alle: שבטי ישראל, gehören alle zum Ganzen, sind alle "Grundstöcke" Jisraels, zwölf Pfeiler, die Gott in den Schoß der Zeiten eingegraben hat, auf welchen sich das Gebäude der Nation entwickeln soll. Und dieses — ist nicht der Segen, den Jakob seinen Söhnen erteilt hat, denn es ist ja zum Teil nur Charakterschilderung — sondern dies ist, was ihr Vater über sie ausgesprochen hatte, d. i, wie er jeden in seiner Eigentümlichkeit gezeichnet hatte, als er sie segnete. Jeden aber,, nach dem seiner Eigentümlichkeit entsprechenden Segen", hat er darauf sie gesegnet. Nachdem er eines jeden Eigentümlichkeit ausgesprochen hatte, segnete er einen jeden demgemäß, segnete einen jeden, dass jeder in seiner Eigentümlichkeit, mit derselben und durch sie, zum Segen gelange. Selbst die hier schon bei ihrer Zeichnung Gesegneten, und diese vielleicht am allermeisten, bedurften noch des besonderen Segens, damit die ihnen gewordene, äußerlich gesegnete Stellung, ihnen auch wirklich zum Segen gereiche. Denn wider seinen Willen und ohne sein Zutun kann Gott keinen Menschen glücklich machen; und so auch umgekehrt, um wandelt der wahrhafte Jude sich selbst die tränenreichste Lage zu einem Quell des reichsten Segens, עוברי בעמק הבכא מעין ישיתוהו. — "Nicht", lautet ein Wort der Weisen, "weil er Löwenmacht dem Juda, Wolfskühnheit dem Benjamin, Rehes Raschheit dem Naftali etc. erteilt, dürftest du meinen, er habe sie nun nicht alle gleich in den Segnungen umfasst, darum heißt es: jeden nach seinem Segen hat er — nicht ihn, אותו, — sondern אותם, sie alle gesegnet" — der Gesamtsegen kam jedem einzelnen zu Teil und jeder spezielle Segen der Gesamtheit zu Gute. —

אשר כברכתו, “in accordance with the individual blessing that each tribe.” will experience in the future.

EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS BLESSING — according to the blessing that was to come in future to each and every one. (Cf. Rashi on Genesis 40:5, איש כפתרון חלמו.)

ויברך אותם, in addition to blessings bestowed individually rather than collectively, earlier.

וזאת אשר דבר להם, this is the future of which he spoke to them.

“He blessed them,” which implies all of them. I did not find this explanation in any Midrash. Furthermore, it seems odd, for where does it state what Yaakov blessed Reuvein, Shimon and Leivi? If it is because he included them all in one blessing, that was learned from ברך אותם [at the end of the verse]. If so, why is ויברך אותם necessary?

Perhaps Ephrayim and Menashe were not counted as two separate tribes until after the Exodus from Egypt, whereas here the Torah counts Joseph. I believe this is a rather forced explanation. I prefer to think that the words איש אשר כברכתו ברך אותם, "he blessed them each according to his special blessing," contains the answer to our problem. We note that Jacob included Shimon and Levi in a single blessing. Hence we have Joseph as two tribes and Shimon and Levi as one tribe together making up the number twelve.

ברך אתם HE BLESSED THEM — It should have said, “every man according to his blessing he blessed him”; why, then does it say “he blessed them”? But since in the blessings he ascribed to Judah personally “the strength of a lion”, to Benjamin “the rapacity of a wolf” and to Naphtali “the swiftness of a hind”, one might think that he did not include all of them in all the blessings, Scripture therefore states “he blessed them” (i.e. each of them personally and all of them together — extending all the personal blessings to each of them) (Midrash Tanchuma, Vayechi 16; cf. Rashi on Exodus 1:19).

איש אשר כברכתו ברך אותם, he gave an individual blessing to each one in accordance with what he perceived to be the son’s need in view of his eventual destiny. Yehudah needed to have a blessing that his dynasty would endure, etc. Levi needed to be blessed that his function of serving G’d as representative of the people would endure, etc.

ויברך אותם, these were the words with which he blessed them,

אשר דבר אליהם אביהם ויברך אותם, what their father told them when he blessed them. Although we note that Jacob bestowed no blessing on either Reuben, Shimon or Levi, the Torah makes the point that the very harsh comments Jacob made to these three sons were their blessings. This is why the Torah employs the expression דבר, an expression reserved for harsh words or a harsh tone. The Torah adds ויברך אותם, he blessed them, to make certain we do not misunderstand. When we look at the way Jacob censured Reuben, we are reminded of the Sifri in Behaalotcha according to which the privileges of the firstborn will be restored to them in the future. Inasmuch as Jacob called Reuben his firstborn this was an encouragement for all the firstborn to look forward to the future when they would again be allowed to function as priests. It was on account of that future that Jacob was so intent to acquire the birthright from Esau at the time. The idea that there would come a time when Esau would perform the service in the Holy Temple was anathema to Jacob. This does not mean that in the future these privileges will be denied to the Levites. At the time envisaged both the firstborn and the Levites will share equally in those functions that were performed by the Levites when the Temple was standing. Jacob also blessed Simon and Levi when he cursed their anger. His blessing consisted in that he cursed their excess amount of anger. By reducing their natural tendency to anger he bestowed a veritable blessing upon them. The fact that he decreed that when the land of Canaan would be distributed they should be split up and scattered throughout the land was also a blessing as it would help to blunt any harmful results whenever they would have occasion to display their anger.

איש אשר כברכתו ברך אותם, each of these tribes according to the specific blessing Yaakov had bestowed on them. The blessings would all become effective in the future.

אשר כברכתו according to his blessing, etc. Each person received a blessing in keeping with his individual personality and achievements. You must not forget that different souls possess different potentials. Some souls are able to rise to the level of being priests, others to the level of being kings, etc. Still others have the potential to achieve greatness in Torah knowledge, or temporal successes such as wealth, or personal heroism. Jacob endeavoured to match his blessings to what he perceived to be the nature of each of his sons' special attributes.

ברך אותם, he blessed them. The Torah uses the word אותם them, (plural) to stress that each and every blessing to each individual son was also meant to be beneficial to the brothers as a whole. When Jacob predicted that Yehudah's hand would be on the neck of his enemies, this automatically meant that Yehudah's brothers would also benefit from his military prowess, etc.