asher nasan li Elokim BA'ZEH

When Yosef heard that Yaakov was sick and dying, he rushed with his two sons to his father's bedside.  Yaakov told Yosef that his two sons, Ephraim and Menashe, were like Reuvain and Shimon to him and they would be counted as shevatim.  Yakov was then about to give them brachos when suddenly he paused.  The following enigmatic exchange (48:9-10) then took place:

 וַיַּ֥רְא יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל אֶת־בְּנֵ֣י יוֹסֵ֑ף וַיֹּ֖אמֶר מִי־אֵֽלֶּה

Yaakov saw Yosef's sons and seemed not to recognize them; he asked Yosef who the two people standing before him were.

Yosef responded:

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יוֹסֵף֙ אֶל־אָבִ֔יו בָּנַ֣י הֵ֔ם אֲשֶׁר־נָֽתַן־לִ֥י אֱלֹהִ֖ים בָּזֶ֑ה

When he heard Yosef's answer, Yaakov went ahead and blessed them.

If we didn't know better we might think Yaakov was having a senior moment here.  The Ohr haChaim asks the obvious question:  קשה והלא י״ז שנה היו יושבים לפניו ללמוד תורה ואיך שואל עליהם,  For 17 years Yaakov Avinu has been learning Torah with these same two grandchildren and suddenly he doesn't recognize who they are when he sees them?  

Rashi helps us out with a derash, but I don't know if it makes the passage any less cryptic.  Rashi comments:

וירא ישראל את בני יוסף – בקש לברכם ונסתלקה שכינה ממנו, לפי שעתיד ירבעם ואחאב לצאת מאפרים, ויהוא ובניו ממנשה.

ויאמר מי אלה – מהיכן יצאו אילו, שאינן ראויין לברכה

Yaakov Avinu saw prophetically that the evil kings Yeravan and Achav would come from Ephraim and Yeihu from Menashe, and so he hesitated, wondering if indeed they were worthy of bracha.

(Parenthetically, why did Yaakov not have a similar hesitation when it came to blessing his other sons?  Having Menashe as a descendent is nothing to brag about, but Yaakov did not pause before blessing Yehudah?     

Bartenura answers in Amar N'kei that when it comes to a son, a parent is willing to overlook future misdeeds and give a bracha.  Ephraim and Menashe, for all their closeness to Yaakov, were one generation removed and did not enjoy the same consideration.

I don't know how things are on your families, but I have a kashe on this Bartenura from the metziyus.  Seems to me that whatever mild criticism my mother may make about her grandchildren, they are still all wonderful in her eyes, but when it comes to her children like me, that's another story : )

If that's what gave Yaakov pause, how did  Yosef's response serve to reassure him?  How does reminding Yaakov that these are the children Hashem gave him in Mitzrayim help?

R' Baruch Sorotzkin has two approaches to this question (we've also discussed it in the past).  I would put one of his answers like this: it is precisely because Yaakov said אֶפְרַ֙יִם֙ וּמְנַשֶּׁ֔ה כִּרְאוּבֵ֥ן וְשִׁמְע֖וֹן יִֽהְיוּ־לִֽי׃ that he hesitated before blessing them.  Ephraim and Menashe were big tzadikim, but were they really on par with the shivtei K-h?  Doesn't the fact that these wicked kings like Yeravam and Achav  prove that there is already some latent flaw within them?

Yosef's answer was that these were the children "asher nasan li Elokim BA'ZEH."  These children did not grow up from birth in the presence of Yaakov Avinu like Reuvain and Shimon did.  These children did not have the opportunity to live on the holy soil of Eretz Yisrael like Reuvain and Shimon did.  "BA'ZEH" = these children were born here, in Egypt, a foreign land, a foreign culture.  You have to measure them on their own scale, taking account of that unique environment and its challenges.  The outcome of their lives and the lives of their descendants may not be the same as that of Reuvain, Shimon, and the other shevatim, but that does not diminish their tzidkus given where they came from.

R' Tzadok writes that the spiritual achievements of these last generations before mashiach are even greater than those of previous generations.  No one today is anywhere close to what the Vilna Gaon was, what R' Akiva EIger was, kal v'chomer what even earlier generations were, but those folks did not grow up with an iphone, a TV, twitter and facebook.  When you see bnei Torah immersed in learning despite the distractions the world throws at them, that's "asher nasan li Elokim BA'ZEH."