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AND HE BLESSED JOSEPH AND SAID. This statement seems inaccurate, since on reading further we find that he did not bless Joseph at all, but only his sons. If he blessed the sons, it should have said “and he blessed them”, so why does it say “and he blessed Joseph” when we find no blessing given to Joseph?
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R. Jose solved the difficulty by stating that in blessing the sons Jacob blessed Joseph also, since the blessing of a man’s sons is his own blessing.
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R. Eleazar said that the object of the verb “blessed” is the particle eth, which alludes to the sign of the covenant. When Joseph said “they are my sons”, Jacob blessed that place which symbolizes the Covenant that Joseph kept.
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In the next words, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk”, the word God alludes to the holy Covenant, and the elder patriarchs Abraham and Isaac were literally “before” this, because that place derives nourishment and sustenance from them.
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Jacob continued: THE GOD (Elohim) WHICH HATH FED ME. In repeating the word Elohim, he blessed that place with a reference to Elohim Hayyim (Living God), the source of life and of blessing. On that account he mentioned himself at this point, saying, “the God who blessed me”, because all blessings that flow from the source of life are first received by Jacob, and thereupon this place is blessed, and all is made dependent on the male.
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From here we learn that wherever blessings are to be bestowed, God should be blessed first; otherwise the blessings will not be fulfilled.
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The blessing which Isaac bestowed on Jacob is no exception to this rule, because he said first, “behold the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed”, where the field is an allusion to that field which is the source of blessings. Note that in the morning a man should first bless God and only then give his greeting to his fellow-men.
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When Jacob was about to bless Joseph’s sons, he saw by the Holy Spirit that Jeroboam the son of Nebat would issue from Ephraim, and he exclaimed, “Who are these?”, the word “these” (eleh) being an allusion to idols. The reason is that besides the evil serpent there is one that rides on it, and when they are joined together they are called “these”, and they visit the world with all their hosts.
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The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, is called “this”, and is symbolized by the covenant of the holy imprint which is ever on a man’s body.
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Hence we find written, “These also shall forget” (Is. 49, 15), and again, “For these I am weeping” (Ibid. 16), that sin being the cause to us of endless weeping; or alternatively, because this place was allowed to gain dominion over Israel and to destroy the Temple, the word “I” (ani) in this case referring to the Holy Spirit.
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It may be asked, on this hypothesis, what are we to make of the words “These are the words of the covenant”? The answer is that the word “these” is here also appropriate, because the words of the covenant are established by “these”, since they are the abode of all curses, which await all who transgress the covenant.
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Similarly it is written, “These are the precepts which the Lord commanded”, because the object of all the precepts is to purify man so that he should not stray from the right path and should keep far away from there. Hence, too, it is written, “These are the generations of Noah”, because they included Ham the father of Canaan, who was accursed.
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The spirit of eleh is the “dross of gold”. Aaron in the wilderness offered gold, which was his own affinity, since he was endowed with the strength of fire, and fire and gold are all one, but the unclean spirit which haunts the wilderness found at that time a place on which to fasten,
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and so Israel, after being freed at Mount Sinai from the primeval defilement which brought death into the world, afterwards incurred it again and brought death upon themselves and all their descendants.
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Hence, when Jacob saw in his mind’s eye Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made an idol and said, “These are thy gods, O Israel”, he trembled and said, “Who are these?”. Hence when he came afterwards to bless them, he first blessed Elohim and then blessed them from that source.