Genesis 49:25

שדים BREASTS (SHADAYIM) — "He will surely be cast down" (Exodus 19:13), we translate (in Onkelos) as eeshtedaah yishtedi. Also shadayim here is [to be understood that way,] because the seed shoots out like an arrow.

From the Word of the Lord shall be thy help; and He who is called the All--Sufficient shall bless thee with the blessings which descend with the dew of heaven from above, and with the good blessing of the fountains of the deep which ascend and clothe the herbage from beneath. The breasts are blessed at which thou wast suckled, and the womb in which thou didst lie.

Blessings of breasts and womb. The breasts are similar to the heavens, and the womb to the deep, and the sense [of the blessing] is that they [should] increase their children. And the opposite of this is "a womb that miscarries and shrivelled breasts" (Hosea 9:14).

מאל אביך, all your bounty originates with the G’d of your father, and it is He Who

יעזרך, will assist you. ברכות תהום, refers to the subterranean sources of irrigation rising and watering the crops that are in need of such irrigation.

ברכות שדים, that the breasts will not be dry and the babies will not die due to insufficient milk supply.

ורחם. Also while inside the mother’s womb the fetus would not die prematurely. When the Bible speaks of curses, it uses the same wording in reverse. (compare Hoseah 9,14) תן להם רחם משכיל, “give them a womb that miscarries and shriveled breasts! Even if the fetus survived the pregnancy, make the infant die from lack of milk supply!”

מאל אביך, all of this (assistance) originated from the G’d of your father who had told me that the ascendancy of the Jewish people would manifest itself only after a period of mental suffering and physical debasement. This is what is meant when G’d said to Yaakov in 28,14 והיה זרעך כעפר הארץ, “your seed will be like the dust of the earth,” before he went on to say ופרצת ימה וקדמה, “you will spread out in all directions of the globe.”

ויעזרך, so that you will not again descend to the depths.

ואת שדי, same as if the Torah had written ומאת א-ל שדי, “from the G’d whose attribute is Shaddai.” Yaakov mentions this attribute specifically as it had been this attribute of G’d which had appeared to him in 35,11 promising that he would develop into a community of nations. Joseph’s greatness would be orchestrated with the help of this attribute of G’d.

ויברכך, He, Himself, without intermediary. This would be different from the blessing extended to Ephrayim and Menashe in which Yaakov promised that “the angel,” i.e. the intermediary, who has looked after me would look after these children of Joseph. (48,16). This blessing was also different in character from the blessings of Yitzchok for Esau, and that from Moses for the people crossing into the Holy Land. In all those instances, except in the blessing Moses referred to in Deuteronomy 1,11 which was given by him prior to the sin of the spies, the initiators of the blessing were human beings, i.e. Yitzckok or Moses. G’d would be asked to honour promises made by humans as a blessing. In our situation here, Yaakov commands the blessing to originate with the attribute of G’d known as Shaddai.

ברכות שמים מעל, in the sense that the days of your life would be completed as planned before you were born. (compare Exodus 23,27)

ברכות תהום רובצת תחת, material blessings, adequate food and money to buy necessities.

ברכות שדים ורחם. This is a blessing concerning having healthy and numerous children, in contrast with the expression רחם משכיל ושדים צומקים, “a womb that miscarries and shriveled breasts” (Hosea 9,14)

מאל אביך, your glory stems from the G’d of your father, and He will assist you, ואת שדי, and your blessing will be confirmed by Shaddai. The letter מ in the word מאל also serves as an unwritten preposition for the expression ואת שדי, i.e. it really means ומאת שדי, “and from Shaddai.”

What will Shaddai’s blessing consist of? מברכת שמים מעל, the dew which comes from above and the rain which arrives at its proper time.

ברכות תהום רובצת תחת. The subterranean blessing from below. Moses uses similar words when he blesses the tribe of Joseph in Deuteronomy 33,13 saying: מברכת ה' ארצו ממגד שמים מטל ומתהום רובצת תחת. He only reversed the order in which he recited these blessings. He says of the water which reposes in the belly of the earth that it is perceived as lying down, as if in preparation for the time when it is expected to rise and to irrigate the crops. Alternately, it awaits man to draw it to perform irrigation. A third possibility would be that irrigation will be performed by the rain from heaven. The gist of the blessing is that the soil in the part of the land on which the tribe of Joseph dwells is so amply irrigated from underneath that even if there should be a drought, and no rain would fall, there is enough moisture to support the herbs in the fields.

ברכת שדים ורחם, Onkelos, who understands this as the blessing of father and mother, is familiar to most readers. Other commentators understand these words as referring to blessing emanating both from heaven and earth, although if we were to accept this, Yaakov would have repeated himself. The fact is that he wanted to reinforce the power of the blessing. “The heavens” are a euphemism for the breasts, and the drops of rain they yield are being compared to the drops of milk from the breasts, whereas the earth is a simile for the womb, seeing it produces fruit, as does the womb. My late father of blessed memory explained the word שדים as referring to the wet nurse, (when the mother herself cannot nurse her baby) and the word רחם as referring to the actual mother. Yaakov follows this blessing with the blessing of אביך “your father,” seeing that the baby requires a blessing from three sources. They are: father, mother, and the wet nurse who feeds the baby with her own milk. Personally, I feel that the blessing refers to the children that are being born to the tribe of Joseph, the opposite of a רחם משכיל ושדים צומקות, which we already referred to as a curse (Hoseah 9,14).

ברכות שדים, “blessings of the breast;” Joseph’s descendants were to be blessed with having ample supplies of milk to nurse their infants. Their wombs should also be blessed, so that they will have many children. The blessing also implies that none of his offspring should be bereft by the death of young children or by having children that are unable to conceive.