At the end of the Book of Bereishit (Genesis), Yaakov gathers his family for his final moments. Before blessing his sons, he blesses his grandsons, Menashe and Ephraim. It is a quiet scene, but one that has echoed through Jewish homes for generations. To this day, parents bless their children with these same words. But this blessing is more than tradition. It is a philosophy for life.
Menashe represents survival. His name comes from forgetting hardship. He reminds us of the ability to endure, to push through pain, to stand back up after life knocks us down.
1 View gallery
'Jacob Blessing Ephraim and Manasseh'- painting by Benjamin Wes
(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Ephraim represents something more. Flourishing. Growth. Expansion. Moving forward without being satisfied with where you are.
Yaakov crosses his hands and places his right hand on Ephraim, the younger brother. It is intentional. He is telling us something timeless. Survival matters, but it is not the goal. Growth is.
This distinction has shaped my own life. Becoming observant came with real obstacles. There is a quiet message many people hear, sometimes directly and sometimes subtly. If you live a Torah life, you will be limited. Your business will suffer. Your options will shrink. You will need to compromise ambition.
Making aliyah carried a similar narrative. People talk openly about how hard it is to make a living in Israel. How many do not succeed. How stability is harder to find.
Those voices are loud. And if you listen to them, survival becomes the ceiling. I have felt that tension myself. The questions. The pressure. The mental noise that asks whether you are being unrealistic or reckless for wanting more while choosing a values-based life.
But Ephraim refuses to live there. Ephraim does not deny obstacles. He grows through them. He takes everything that came before and uses it as fuel. He is not satisfied with just making it through. He wants to build something meaningful.
I see this pattern often in my work with people. Many define themselves as survivors. They are proud of what they endured, and they should be. But survival quietly becomes an identity. A story that says, this is as far as I go.
Ephraim challenges that story. He asks a harder question. What if what you went through was not meant to limit you, but to expand you?
When I bless my own children, that is what I hope for them. Not that they avoid difficulty. Not that life is easy. But that they take the good we give them - the values, the faith, the love - and grow into something even greater. To go further. To aim higher. To become more.
Yaakov teaches us that the ultimate blessing is not just to endure life, but to flourish within it.
Menashe helps us survive the past. Ephraim helps us build the future.
And the Torah is clear about which one we should aspire to become.
- Nachman (Nathan) Hoffman is a High-Performance coach, entrepreneur and CEO. With over 20 years of experience in business and personal development, he helps individuals and organizations align vision, growth and values.
First published: 14:42, 01.01.26