Literary Devices – Bereshit 48/0

Literary Devices – Bereshit 48

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Key Words

Father and Land

Tanakh Lab demonstrates that the words that appear with greatest frequency in this chapter are "father" and "land", reflecting two central themes of the unit: the blessings given by Yaakov to his descendants before his death and the passing on of the covenantal promise of land to the next generation. 

Right and Left

• The words “ימין” and “שמאל” appear only five and three times respectively in the chapter, but relative to their usage in the  rest of Tanakh, their prevalence here is significant. They highlight the scene of Yaakov’s crossing of his hands which might represent at least a partial resolution of the theme of rivalry between brothers that has run throughout Sefer Bereshit. Yaakov (like his forefathers) bestows a greater blessing on the younger child, but in this case, the two brothers accept their blessings without conflict.

Repetition

• Yaakov’s speech in Bereshit 48 is an interesting instance of repetition, as he mentions various events that happened in the preceding chapters without explaining their relevance, including his prophecy in Beit El and the death of Rachel.
• Secondary Literature
• See Yaakov's Retrospective and Yosef's Double Portion which explores three possible explanations for Yaakov’s repetition of these events: to justify Yosef's double portion, to highlight the chosen status of Ephraim, or to encourage Yosef's family not to assimilate into Egyptian culture.
• See אפרים ומנשה, by R. Elchanan Samet, for an exploration of the repetition of events within Yaakov’s speech which draws on the commentary of R. Saadia Gaon.

Wordplay and Alliteration

Examples

Chapter 48 contains several examples of wordplay:

• In verses 4-7 there is a play on the sounds that make up Ephraim's name: "מַפְרְךָ", "אֶפְרַיִם", "אֶפְרָתָה", "אֶפְרָת"
• In verse 6, we find a different example: "וּמוֹלַדְתְּךָ אֲשֶׁר הוֹלַדְתָּ"

Secondary Literature

• See Gary A. Rendsburg's Alliteration in the Book of Genesis for other examples of wordplay.
• For examples of wordplay between related texts in different chapters or books, see מדרכי "לשון נופל על לשון" במקרא by Amos Hakham.

Parallelism

Example

Bereshit 48:10  which begins the story of Yaakov’s blessings, is stated with formal parallelism: 

• וְעֵינֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל כָּבְדוּ מִזֹּקֶן / לֹא יוּכַל לִרְאוֹת
• וַיַּגֵּשׁ אֹתָם אֵלָיו וַיִּשַּׁק לָהֶם / וַיְחַבֵּק לָהֶם.

Secondary Literature

• For more information about the nature of Biblical parallelism, see Dr. Mayer I. Gruber’s article, The Meaning of Biblical Parallelism: A Biblical Perspective and Dr. Adele Berlin’s Grammatical Aspects of Biblical Parallelism.
• Other resources (not available online) are Dr. Robert Alter’s The Art of Biblical Poetry pp. 3-61, Dr. Adele Berlin’s The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism, and Dr. James Kugel’s The Idea of Biblical Poetry: Parallelism and Its History.