הכתב והקבלה — ויברך את יוסף

Q — 'ויברך את יוסף' opens the blessing scene — but the blessing that follows ('הָאֱלֹהִים אֲשֶׁר הִתְהַלְּכוּ אֲבֹתַי לְפָנָיו...') is clearly addressed to Ephraim and Menasheh, not Yosef. Did Yaakov bless Yosef? Rashbam: 'ברכת הבנים היא ברכת האב.' Sforno: a separate, unrecorded blessing to Yosef. HaKtav offers a third option.

A — HaKtav VeHaKabbalah reads 'את' here not as the direct-object marker (so Yosef would be the recipient) but as the preposition 'with' — its less common but legitimate sense ('את יעקב איש וביתו באו' — Shemot 1:1). The verse therefore means: 'and he blessed [the boys] *together with* Yosef.' Yosef was present, participating, identified with the brachah — he is the conduit through whom the blessing reaches his sons, but not himself its grammatical recipient. This neatly resolves the order of events too: Yosef's protest about the right-hand placement (verses 17–18) came BEFORE the brachah, since after a brachah there is nothing to correct. The whole scene rearranges around the proper reading of 'את.'