Perspective on Evolving
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Dena Schusterman
0t1igm0ph111a9s15itdcc · Shared with Public
Super short, super subtle, I hope it's understood by readers. Let me know if you could. Drop a line.
If you don't get everything you want, think of the things you don't get that you don't want- Oscar Wilde.
In life, it’s about perspective.
In this week's Torah reading, Jacob, approaching the end of his days, blesses his children. He also blesses the two sons of Josef. Menashe and Ephraim.
He places his right hand on the younger son Ephraim and his left hand on the older son, Menashe.
Joseph doesn’t understand.
Why was Jacob messing with Tradition? He wants his father to switch his hands.
In life, it’s about perspective.
Joseph saw the natural order of things. That Menashe, the firstborn, deserved the special right-handed blessing. Josef named him “not forgetting his father's home” in celebration of upholding the environment and values he grew up with at home even as he lived as a stranger in a strange land.
But Yaakov saw it differently. He saw the younger son, Ephraim, named for flourishing in Egypt, deserving the right-handed first blessing.
In Yosef’s perspective, his distinction was surviving life in Egypt. Alone and confused. Gripping and holding on to his parent's traditions was what made him into who he was. How could he have gotten anywhere had he not succeeded those first years?
Jacob’s (once removed) perspective was that holding on is not the end. The greatness of his son was how he internalized the values he learned from his parents, using them to develop himself and prosper.
Ultimately it was Yaakov’s blessings, so his perspective won out.
How do I see it?
When I work hard to change my attitudes and behaviors, even when all I can manage is white-knuckling it— I’m proud. Sometimes I don't quite know how to do the right thing, but I know very well what is wrong. But, this hand switcheroo on Yakov's part is teaching me that it’s when I have integrated the hard stuff and evolved —that’s the ultimate blessing.