This week’s parsha is about the rise of Yosef to power, after suffering years of torment and torture. Yosef’s immediate response to his new royal position is to marry Osnot, and have two children. He names his older one Menasheh “כי נשני אלקים את כל עמלי”; “G-d has made me forget all of my hardship.” Yosef then names his younger one Ephraim כי הפרני אלוקים ארץ עניי “G-d has made me fruitful in the land of suffering.” Evidently, Yosef’s children were reminders of the hardships Yosef encountered. After all of the difficultyYosef experienced, how was this a reward? Why would Yosef ever want to bring children into a world of cruelty?

Rav Hirsch explains that Yosef’s greatest reward was also his greatest accomplishment. Later on in the Torah, after Yosef dies, the pasuk refers to him as “יוסף הצדיק,” “Yosef the righteous.” Yes, he suffered greatly, but what made him so pious? It was his ability to raise children in a land of adversity, even after he knew what they might suffer. Further than that, he raised the two role models for all of future generations. On Friday night, when a father blesses his son, he says: ישמך אלוקים כאפריים ומנשה, “May G-d make you like Ephraim and Menasheh.” If it weren’t for Yosef’s dedication and survival,  Jewish children would never have their ultimate goal: to be survivors of adversity and to have faith for their own continued existence.