Commento su Genesi 48:5

הנולדים לך עד באי אליך literally, WHO WERE BORN TO THEE . . . UNTIL I CAME TO THEE, i.e. before I came to thee. It signifies as much as: WHO WERE BORN from the time when you left me UNTIL THE TIME WHEN I CAME TO YOU. לי הם THEY SHALL BE MINE — they shall be counted amongst my other sons, to receive a portion in the Land each for himself (i.e. each to have his own territory exactly as each of my other sons has).

ועתה שני בניך וגו', seeing that G’d has given me the land of Canaan as a possession, I can make you the firstborn with the right to receive two portions of that land. This means that in effect you will receive the share of two tribes. Your sons will receive an allocation equal to the combined allocation of Reuven and Shimon.

ועתה שני בניך הנולדים לך....לי הם, G’d gave me only these two sons of yours together with you. Yaakov had confirmed his meaning when he said that just as he had not expected to see Joseph again he had also not expected to live to see two of his sons. (verse 11)

ועתה שני בניך, "And now, your two sons, etc." As a result of this insight, ועתה, Jacob realised in retrospect that G'd had referred to two sons that were to be born to Joseph and that it was these that were destined to become גוי וקהל גוים as per that promise in 35,11. What G'd had meant was that Joseph's sons were to rank equally with Reuben and Shimon amongst Jacob's offspring.

עד בואי, I am not saying that all your sons will be treated as if they were literally my own sons; only Menashe and Ephrayim will enjoy this status.

אפרים ומנשה כראובן ושמעון יהיה לי,” Ephrayim and Menashe will be to me just as Reuven and Shimon.” It appears from Rashi’s commentary that the division of the land in the days of Joshua was not based on the actual claimants, the sons of Yaakov still being alive at the time, but it was based on a principle known as גלגול, re-incarnation. It did not matter therefore, that Yaakov appeared to have compared the younger son Ephrayim, to Yaakov’s eldest, Reuven. Ephrayim and Menashe were to be “tribes” in name only, they did not replace the concept of “the tribe of Joseph.” [the cut off point for being included in the original family of Yaakov was the date of their arrival in the land of Egypt. Seeing that both Ephrayim and Menashe had been born prior to Yaakov’s arrival, even though they had been born on the contaminated soil of Egypt, enabled Yaakov to confer the status on them that he is about to bestow. Ed.] Nachmanides questions the wordsעל שם אחיהם יקראו בנחלתם, “they will be included under the names of their brothers in their inheritance,” claiming that these very words indicate that the “name” is of the essence, not as Rashi suggests that they were “tribes” in name only. Besides, Nachmanides holds that the land division under Joshua was not based on the original Israelites who had left Egypt being considered as having been resurrected, and the size of the land holdings being based on the size of their families at that time, but that each tribe received the same size of territory in the Land of Israel, although the parcels were not of equal quality as farmland, etc. When the Torah had instructed that the more numerous tribes should receive larger portions of land, whereas the less numerous ones would receive a smaller share, (Numbers 26,4) this referred to the basic family units within the tribe, not to the tribes themselves. These family units were based on the state of affairs of the families when they left Egypt. [if, due to the sin of the spies and the death decreed on that whole generation, taking possession of the land had not been postponed by 40 years, a whole generation, there would not have been a problem in understanding the instructions of the Torah. Ed.] It is therefore quite easy to understand that the tribal portions allocated to Ephrayim and Menashe by Yoshua equaled those of Reuven and Shimon.]

לפני — before I came to you... [Rashi explains this] because עד בואי seemingly implies they were born after Yaakov came to him. But in 41:50 it is written, “Two sons were born to Yoseif before the years of famine came.” And when Yaakov came to Yoseif, two famine years had already passed. Thus Rashi explains, “Before I came...”

אפרים ומנשה כראובן ושמעון יהיו לי, “Ephrayim and Menashe shall be for me as possessing the same status as Reuven and Shimon.” It is notable that the numerical value of the words כראובן ושמעון יהיו לי, are identical to the numerical value of אפרים ומנשה [with a difference of only “1, the former amounting to “1” more.” Ed.]

'ועתה, שני בניך וגו, “and now, as far as your two sons are concerned, etc.;” according to the Talmud in Baba Batra 123, the reason why Yaakov appointed both of Joseph’s sons as becoming founders of the twelve tribes, something he did not promise to any of his other sons, was because Joseph had sustained the whole family during the years of famine. Further more, Joseph had been the firstborn of Rachel who had been his principal wife, as opposed to the respective firstborn sons of Zilpah and Bilhah. Another explanation: Yaakov felt that this was one way he could honour the memory of Rachel versus the concubines by increasing the heritage of the sons of Rachel. Reuven had already forfeited his original claim to extra rights of the firstborn, having been guilty of a major indiscretion.

לי הם THEY SHALL BE MINE — they shall be counted amongst my other sons, to receive a portion in the Land each for himself (i.e. each to have his own territory exactly as each of my other sons has).

עד בואי, before I arrived. We had been informed in 41,3 that two sons had been born to Joseph before the onset of the famine, i.e. before Yaakov came to Egypt.