In the last portion of the Book of Genesis, Vayechi, Jacob poignantly offers his deathbed blessing to his grandchildren, Ephraim and Menashe, the sons of Joseph. In his blessing, he says, “May the God in whose ways my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd from my birth to this day — the Angel who has redeemed me from all harm — bless the lads.” It’s a beautiful and somewhat ambiguous framing. The syntax suggests that he is referring to God as a malakh – an angel. This would be rare, although a little further down the road God arguably refers to Godself as an angel, leading the Children of Israel out of Egypt. But both instances are a little fudgy. We see in Torah that Jacob’s life was punctuated by angelic visitations – his dream of the ladder, his wrestling match, his supernatural guidance to return home to his family. So he could mean a guardian angel, or he could mean God, or he could intend the ambiguity, knowing that angels are just a face of the Divine anyway.
Jacob’s blessing became part of the nightly traditional bedtime Shema, which relaxes the verse’s specificity, so that the n’arim – the “lads” – no longer refer to Ephraim and Menashe, but to all of the young ones we will eventually leave behind: children, grandchildren, students, niblings, the next generations altogether.
In January, 2017 I participated in leading a Kabbalat Shabbat service at the Ohalah Rabbinic Convention, and it was Shabbat Vayechi. So this song came to me and we used it that night. Since then I’ve used it in a variety of ways including healing services, baby namings and – my favorite – for the weekly parental blessing of children on Shabbat.
This recording is from a Shabbat service at Congregation Ner Shalom. Sheet music is downloadable by clicking here.
I hope it is of use to you.
Thank you to the Ner Shalom Good Shabbos Band for their consistently beautiful music-making. And to Rabbi Evan Krame for bugging me for 3 years to make this available. And to Rabbi Rachel Barenblat for reminding me yet again this morning. The image is by Rembrandt, if you’re wondering.