Two Types of Living

Rashi tells us that part of the blessings given to Efrayim and Menashe is that everyone will bless their children to be like the.  Everyone asks why bless your children to be like Efraim and Menashe, why not Reuvain and Shimon or Avrohom and Yitzchak, why Efraim and Menashe specifically?  I beleive the answer is that there is a tremendous difference between Efraim and Menashe and those that canme before them.  They were the first one's born in a foreign land, distant from the main body of Klal Yisroel.  Sadly, that has been most of our history.  We have spent a lot more time occupying foreign lands that we have spent living in Eretz Yisroel under a Torah-run government.  It is the lesson of Efraim and Menashe that we must pass over to our children to keep the chain of Judaism thriving even in the golus.
Yosef wanted Yaakov to place his right hand on Menashe, the bechor but Yaakov puts it on Efraim first.  If Efraim was greater and deserved the right hand, why didn't Yosef see it?  And why wasn't he the physical bechor, why was  Menashe the actual bechor?  Earlier in the week, here, we discussed the ability of Yaakov and Yosef to bridge the gap of generations and pass on the mesorah even when the next generation doesn't live in the same conditions.  Menashe and Efraim represent two means of transmitting this mesorah.  There is the Menashe attitude, כי נשני אלקים את בית אבי, to remind yourself of the good old days by talking in a nostalgic manner about the past.  This stops a person from assimilating into the fabric of the society s/he is living in for s/he know that s/he is different.  S/he descends from holy people.  Then there is the methodology of Efraim, כי הפרני אלקים בארץ עניי, not just to shy away from society, but to improve the society one is in and elevate it לקדושה וטהרה.  In terms of the one stuck in golus, Yosef the first focus must be the Menashe process, to avoid being contaminated by the society around him.  After that, one can work on the avodah of Efraim and try to improve his surroundings. Therefore, he puts Menashe first.  However, ultimately, it is the Efraim methodology which is greater and has more of an impact, hence Yaakov puts his right hand on Efraim (based upon Likutay Sichos volume 15.)