Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Gen 41:45, 46:20, Soferim 21 (43b), Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer 36, 38, Aptowitzer: Asenath is the offspring of Dinah’s rape, who was brought to Egypt, where she married Joseph and was reintegrated into the family of Jacob.
Tamar Kadari: Gen. 43:24–34 relates that Joseph invited his brothers to eat with him when they went down to Egypt to procure food. In the midrashic depiction, this was a family meal in which Joseph’s wife and children also participated. Joseph sat his brothers before him, "from the oldest in the order of his seniority to the youngest in the order of his youth" (v. 33), and brought the portions to the meal. Joseph gave each one, including Benjamin, his portion, and then he took his own portion and gave it to Benjamin. Asenath took her portion and gave it to Benjamin, as did Ephraim and Manasseh. Thus, there were five portions next to Benjamin, as is recorded in v. 34: "But Benjamin’s portion was five times that of anyone else" (Tanhuma, Vayigash 4). The verse then continues: "And they drank their fill with him," on which the midrash comments that all those years during which Joseph had not seen his brothers, he did not imbibe of wine, nor did his brothers until they saw him; now they drank with him, to intoxication (Gen. Rabbah 92:5). In these midrashim, Asenath and her children shared Joseph’s sense of loss all the years that he lived apart from his family, and they also participate in the excitement and joy when he is reunited with Benjamin, his only maternal brother.
The Torah relates (Gen. 48) that when Jacob was old and infirm, Joseph came to visit him, together with his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim. Jacob blessed Joseph’s sons and declared that, for him, they were equal to his own sons and they would receive a double land portion.
In another midrashic unfolding, Joseph began his request by saying: "Father, my children are righteous like me." He brought their mother Asenath before his father and said: "Father, please, even if only on behalf of this righteous woman." When Jacob saw this, he told Joseph (Gen. 48:9): "Bring them up to me that I may bless them." Joseph brought them to his father, who began to embrace and kiss them, and rejoiced in them (Pesikta Rabbati [ed. Friedmann (Ish-Shalom)], chap. 3, fol. 12a).
