Joseph is Rachel's first son, after long years. She says: "G-d has taken away my disgrace," then she calls him Joseph, saying: "may G-d add me another son" (Genesis 30:23 and 24). In Egypt, Joseph in turn names his sons: Manasseh, "for G-d has made me forget all my toil," and Ephraim, "for G-d has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction" (Genesis 41:51 and 52). Jacob adopts them: "Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine like Reuben and Simeon" (Genesis 48:5). Joseph thus becomes two tribes.
Jacob blesses him at length: "A fruitful vine is Joseph, a fruitful vine by a spring." The archers harassed him, "but his bow remained firm," by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob. He receives "blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies below," and they shall be "on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the one set apart from his brothers" (Genesis 49:22 to 26).
Moses blesses his land with the gifts of heaven, of dew, of the sun and of the moons, with "the favor of Him who dwelt in the bush," then names the two tribes: "the firstborn of his ox, majesty is his; his horns are the horns of a wild ox; these are the myriads of Ephraim, these are the thousands of Manasseh" (Deuteronomy 33:13 to 17).
On the breastplate, Joseph keeps a single stone, the second of the fourth row according to the Targum attributed to Jonathan: the shoham (Exodus 28:20), often rendered as onyx; the identification remains uncertain. In the camp, the two tribes each have their place: Ephraim leads the western camp, with Manasseh and Benjamin (Numbers 2:18 to 24), and Ramban notes that this camp gathers the children of Rachel. Ibn Ezra reports that an ox was on Ephraim's banner, after "the firstborn of his ox."
According to the order of the banners, Joseph therefore receives two months: Tishrei for Ephraim, letter Lamed, and Cheshvan for Manasseh, letter Nun (Sefer Yetzirah 5:2); in the Vilna Gaon's version, Lamed rules over marital union and Nun over smell. The Bnei Yissaschar notes that Tishrei, Cheshvan and Kislev thus go to the three descendants of Rachel, and that Ephraim, seventh in the march of the banners, receives the seventh month. The attribution of months varies with the order followed, as the introductory entry recalls.
Keep this: the son Rachel asked for "in addition" becomes the only one to count for two. One may read in it the very name of Ephraim: G-d made him fruitful where he had suffered.
