Tamar Kadari: According to one tradition, when Jacob saw Joseph’s sons and wished to bless them, the Shekhinah (Divine Presence) departed from him. Jacob thought that Manasseh and Ephraim were not the sons of a legitimate marital union, and were therefore unfit to receive a blessing. Jacob asked (v. 8): "Who are these?", that is, how were these born? (Midrash Aggadah [ed. Buber] 48:8). In another tradition, Jacob saw with the spirit of divine inspiration that Jeroboam son of Nebat, an Ephraimite, would erect (statues of) calves, incite Israel to engage in idolatry, and cause five hundred thousand of Israel to fall in a single day (as is related in II Chron. 13:17). Jacob therefore asked: "Who are these?"—perhaps you improperly married the mother of these? Joseph brought before him Asenath and her ketubah (marriage contract) and said (Gen. 48:9): "They are my sons, whom God has given me here [ba-zeh, literally, with this]": "with this"—with a ketubah and proper marriage. He also showed him that, just as he was circumcised, so were his sons (Midrash ha-Gadol, Vayehi 48:8–9 [ed. Margaliot], pp. 820–21).
