A ווארט from the רבי on this week's פרשה, פרשת ויחי. ויחי we learned that when יוסף brought his two children, אפרים and מנשה, to יעקב to be to get a ברכה from him, he put his hand, his right hand, on אפרים, and the left hand on מנשה. And יוסף told him, no, לא כן אבי, that's not how you should do it, מנשה is the בכור, so the right hand belongs to מנשה. Now, the רבי asks a question, from here it seems that יעקב was saying that the level of אפרים is a higher level than the level of מנשה. But the question is, so then why was מנשה born first? Why was he the בכור? The בכור represents a higher מדרגה. And in גשמיות, whatever happened to the אבות and to the שבטים all represent the רוחניותדיקע part. So if אפרים is actually in a higher מדרגה, in a higher level, then why would he not be the firstborn? Why was מנשה born before him? And also, what is the actually the different in opinion between יעקב and יוסף, that יעקב said that אפרים is more important, and יוסף said מנשה is more important, etc., etc.?

So the רבי explains we could explain this based on their names. In חומש it says, what was the reason the names were given? So concerning מנשה the פסוק says he named him מנשה כי נשני אלקים את כל עמלי ואת כל בית אבי. מנשה means to forget, that השם made me forget all my work and my father's house. And אפרים was given, the פסוק says, כי הפרני אלקים בארץ עניי, because השם made me multiply in the land of my suffering. Now, these two names have a spiritual meaning, because the question is, why would יוסף give a name to a son that represents him forgetting his father's house? It's like almost like celebrating that I forgot my father's house. And the רבי says the פשט is the opposite. He named him that way to always remind him not to forget his father's house. What the name meant that this is a place, living in מצרים is a place where it's possible to forget my father's house. So every time he called מנשה by his name מנשה, it reminded him, you could forget, so meaning to say, don't forget. Don't forget your level that you were before you came to מצרים. So that's what מנשה represents: to stay with what you had before and not to get involved in all the different קליפות of מצרים, while אפרים represents that you even become higher, you grow, you multiply in מצרים. And these two represent a סדר of עבודת השם. The first thing is when a ייד is in גלות, you have to remember not to forget where you really belong, not to forget where you come from, and knowing that in the place where you are you could forget about השם and about your father's house, and make sure not to forget. And the next level is after you make sure that whatever you had before you continue, you also are able to grow even more than you were before. So מנשה is the one that represents not forgetting, to remaining the way you were before, before you went to גלות, and אפרים represents the even growing within the גלות. And that the reason why מנשה was born first, because that's the סדר. First, you have to not forget what you had before. Then, second, after that, you could reach a higher level, which is the level of אפרים, כי הפרני אלקים, you could grow in גלות. And that was the dispute between יעקב and יוסף. יעקב stressed the importance of אפרים, because the goal is to reach the higher level, that while you're in גלות to reach the higher level. So that's why he said that ידעתי בני ידעתי, ואולם אחיו הקטן יגדל ממנו. That's the higher מדרגה, the younger brother is the higher מדרגה, אפרים represents the higher מדרגה, that's why he stressed that. But יוסף stressed the fact that you have to start off with doing something not to forget what you had before. And since that's the only way you could reach the second level, so there is some extra importance in the first level. So יעקב stressed the goal that you're reaching to, and יוסף stressed how you're going to reach that, that first you have to do this, and that's why he stressed what you do first, מנשה. Like מנשה was born the בכור because that's first, יוסף stressed that. But in truth, both are important.

And as far as a lesson for us in our being in גלות, you have to remember we have to do both. First thing is to make sure that the גלות and the things of גלות don't affect us, don't influence us, that we don't go down in our level. And then then we also have to work on getting even higher, that being in גלות, with all the hardships and overcoming that, we're able to reach higher levels in עבודת השם.