Deuteronomy 33:16

and with the goodness of the excel- lent fruits of the earth and its fulness and the favour towards him of Eloah who revealed Himself to Mosheh at the bush in the glory of His Shekinah: let all these blessings be combined, and be made a diadem of grandeur for the head of Joseph, and for the brow of the man who was chief and ruler in the land of Mizraim, and was the glory and honour of his brethren.

the repeated parallelism the sweetness of the land denotes the plains.

and its fullness i.e., the things that it contains.

and the desire of the thornbush-dweller denotes thoughts of heaven [cf. comment on Exodus 3: 2].

It shall come [feminine] that is, the blessing [feminine] shall come. The word has two ornamental affixes, the tav and the heh. Similarly, “help” [Psalms 44: 27], “salvation” [Psalms 3: 3], and “distress” [Psalms 120: 1]. Scripture compares the tribe to an ox, on account of having mentioned the produce of the field; and it mentions the firstborn of his ox, on account of its greater stength (the firstborn being the “first of strength” [21: 17]).

AND FOR THE PRECIOUS THINGS OF THE EARTH ‘U’MLO’OH’ (AND THE FULNESS THEREOF). This means: “for the precious things of the land of the plains and of which it is full,” (and the fulness thereof) as meaning u’mimlo’oh (and “of” the fulness thereof, or “and of which it is full”). for he mentioned the mountains and the hills previously and now he speaks of the valley and the plains, according to the words of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra. In my opinion, the precious things of the earth and the fulness thereof is identical with the blessings of the breasts, and of the womb, for all humans and all creeping things that are alive are called “the fulness of the earth.” Similarly, let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; Surely I will fill thee with men, as with the locust. This blessing is thus like Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, and the fruit of thy cattle.

URTZON’ (AND THE WILL OF) HIM THAT DWELT IN THE BUSH. This is connected with above [i.e., with the word umimeged at the beginning of this verse, where the prefix mem means “from.” Here, too, the word urtzon is equivalent to] u’mirtzon — “and from the Will of Him that dwelt in the bush.” Now the Glorious Name, Verse 58. is called “Him that dwelt in the bush” because it was there that He first appeared to Moses, and He dwelt many days on Mount Sinai which is a place of bushes, Verse 5 (Vol. II, p. 27). and from Sinai He came and dwelt in Israel. And the sense of the verse is that Joseph’s land be blessed from the Will of G-d, similar in meaning to these expressions: ‘ratzitha’ (Thou hast been favorable) unto Thy land; ‘v’ertzeh’ (and I will take pleasure) in it, and I will be glorified.

ורצון שכני סנה, may it enjoy the goodwill of the Lord Who first manifested Himself to me at the burning bush. It was on that occasion that G’d had first indicated that He was going to redeem the Israelites forthwith, in response to the groaning of the Jewish people as reported immediately before the Torah reports Moses’ encounter with G’d. (Exodus 2,23-24) In Psalms 91,15, Moses, the author of that psalm, refers to G’d responding to the outcry of the oppressed. תבאתה לראש יוסף, apart from the blessings the tribe of Joseph shares with all the other tribes, Moses prays that G’d will relate to this tribe without employing His usual intermediaries (such as angels).

ולקדקוד נזיר אחיו, seeing that he was the most self-controlled of all his brothers, [my definition of Nazir, Ed.] (alternative translation, the crowned head in Egypt) and he conducted himself with unparalleled piety toward his brothers, Moses feels that Joseph’s descendants deserve the distinction he prays for.