Yaakov is on his deathbed. His eyes can no longer see. His actions, on the other hand, are characterized by lucidity: he looks at things that physical eyes cannot see, a hidden future and a forgotten past.
The scene where Yaakov exchanges his hands - placing the right hand upon the head of Efraim, Yosef's younger son, and the left upon the head of Menashe, the elder - illustrates this contrast between his weakened physical state and his lucid prophetic consciousness. Unable to see Yosef's sons with his eyes ("And Yisrael saw Yosef's sons, and he said: Who are these?"), he nevertheless knows with certainty where he wants to place his right hand. The dialogue between him and his son is a slightly ironic illustration of the fact that the sight of the elderly, blind father is better than that of his younger, clear-sighted son.
As stated, the "narrative present" of this story is fragmented: memories of the past and images of the future penetrate the present, shaping Yaakov's consciousness and his actions in our story. And so the boundaries between past, present and future are blurred.
What logical connection runs between the flashback utterances of Yaakov? Why is he now reminded of these events from the distant past - decades ago - and what does he mean to express by mentioning them now, in his words to Yosef?
Through an analysis of this episode as well as the flashback narratives, we can understand that Yaakov knew that at this late stage of his life his light had begun to shine, and after all his suffering he suddenly merited an expansion of his family, from the direction of this beloved and lost branch: from Yosef, Rachel's son. Only then did Yaakov give final expression to his emotions: both to his profound sorrow over the death of Rachel, who had died on the way at a young age, and to the contradiction this event engendered in his consciousness - a problem to which he had reacted with silence until now, when its solution was suddenly revealed to him in a wondrous new reality.
