Like Ephraim and Manasseh?

The value of parental blessing of children is attested from the beginning of biblical times. We find Noah blessing Shem and Japheth (Genesis 9:26-27), Isaac blessing Jacob and Esau (Genesis 27 and 28:1-4), and Jacob blessing his two Egyptian grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh.

What is unusual about the blessing of Jacob's grandsons is that the Bible declares that their blessing would become the paradigmatic blessing of parents to children.

So he blessed them that day, saying, By you shall Israel invoke blessings saying: God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh. (Genesis 48:20)

What is somewhat perplexing is that long before the blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh the Bible records a similar phenomenon. In Genesis 12:2 we are told that Abraham was blessed directly by God:

I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you: I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.

Rabbi David Kimhi explains the thrust of the last promise:

He told him: you shall have such abundant blessing and prosperity; that you shall be the standard for others by which blessing will be evoked. When one will bless his son he will say, 'May the Lord bless you with the blessings of Abraham.'

Why then did Abraham not become the standard of blessing? Why was that role was given to Jacob's Egyptian grandsons?

The issue becomes all the more puzzling when one recalls the naming of Joseph's two sons. Manasseh received his name, 'For God has made me forget all my tribulations and the house of my father.' As for Ephraim, his name is explained, 'For God has made me bear fruit in the land of my misery.'

Their names reflect the painful degree of alienation experienced by Joseph during his many years of travail. Although this would certainly explain why Joseph was desirous of his father's blessing and acceptance of his sons, it is less likely to provide the explanation as to why Manasseh and Ephraim became the prototype of blessing.