I had the tremendous honor of spending time with Netanel Felber yesterday in the intensive care unit of Hadassah Hospital. While Netanel is in a medically induced coma, the belief (based on medical information and not just faith) is that he can hear the words being spoken to him. And, since Netanel loves Torah, I shared the following dvar Torah with him.
Every Friday night Jewish girls receive a spectacular blessing from their parents - that they should be like Sarah, Rivka, Rachel and Leah, our remarkable matriarchs. Boys seem to be short-changed. We bless our sons to he like Ephraim and Menashe, based on Yaakov's blessing to them in this week's parsha, Parsha Vayechi. Why do we bless our sons to be like Yaakov's grandsons and not our great Patriarchs - Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov? Why do we want them to be like Ephraim and Menashe?
I once heard a beautiful answer to this question. When our Matriarchs were little children, it was "impossible" for them to become the spiritual leaders of the monotheistic, Jewish nation. They lived among pagans and were raised on idolatry. And yet, they demonstrate that nothing is impossible. They became the spiritual leaders of the great Jewish people.
And this is why we don't bless our sons to be like our forefathers. Yitzchak grew up in Avraham's home and Yaakov grew up in Yitzchak's home. It was more than possible and natural that they would become our spiritual leaders. Same with the tribes - Yaakov's sons. Ephraim and Menashe were Yaakov's grandsons. They had a ceiling. Becoming one of the tribes was impossible. And yet Yaakov elevated them to be "like Reuven and Shimon." The impossible happened. They were elevated to the level of tribes. Thus, they are the parallel to our matriarchs for blessing our sons.
We bless our children every Friday night and tell them not to listen to anyone who tells them that anything is impossible. We can achieve whatever we want with God's help and we need to believe in our children and inspire them to strive for whatever they want.
I shared this message with Netanel because I wanted him to know that no matter what he is going through right now, he can emerge from this and, while it may be a long road ahead, nothing is impossible. And all of us - Am Yisrael - Netanel's extended family- must know this as well. We must pray for Netanel's recovery, study Torah in his honor, and do acts of kindness in his merit. We must recognize that despite the challenging situation in which he is in right now, nothing is impossible. Netanel's father has been giving him this blessing for 21 years and with all of our spiritual efforts and God's help that blessing will be fulfilled through his recovery. May we share good news one to the other and Shabbat Shalom.