D’var Torah - Miketz and Hannuakah

A boy looks out of his window and sees his neighbors lightning up their Christmas tree. He asks his dad if they can have a Hanukkah bush that they can also light up.

His father tells him: Absolutely not!

Why not? asked his son

The father replied: The last time we had dealings with a lighted bush we had to spend 40 years in the desert.

Talking about the desert, did you ever wonder how come every time in our history, whenever there was famine in the land of Kenahan we went to the land of Egypt in spite the fact that the entire agricultural economy of lower Egypt is virtually a rainless area which depends on the Nile River floods.

In this week’s Torah portion, Miketz, we come to think about the two options of the meaning of the word: at the end? Or when he woke up? Are things coming to an end? Or do they keep repeating themselves and are we called by the signs to wake up?

Or as Rabbi Sacks Z”L puts it so well: Never again or ever again?

Let us learn 3 important messages from this Torah portion to help us live a better life.

The first message is to learn from past experiences and read the signs along the way:

We read that “There was famine in all the land, but throughout the land of Egypt there was bread”. So, all the world came to Joseph in Egypt to procure rations, for the famine had become severe throughout the world.

Not only the sons of Jacob went DOWN to Egypt because of famine but also our other two forefathers sought the same solution when they faced hunger in their own land. Jacob moving DOWN to Egypt ended with us becoming slaves and Abraham’s move to Egypt ended badly when he was dealing with king Abimelech. We read that “There was famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there, for the famine was severe in the land”.

Issac also wanted to go down to Egypt because of famine but G-d prevented him from doing so. We read that “There was a famine in the land” – aside from the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham, and Issac went to Abimelech, king of the philistines, in Gerar. The Lord had appeared to him and said: “Do not go Down to Egypt; Stay on the land which I point out to you….”

King Abimelech even appears with the same, as the king Abraham had to deal with, 75 years earlier. What bigger sign do we need for us to get the message?

 

From generation to generation, we should learn from our mistakes when History repeats itself. It feels to me that the story of hunger, famine (a long period with no water – remember the pit Joseph was thrown into which was empty of water -) keeps repeating itself and moving us to leave our promised land and go down to a narrow place (Mitzraim) whenever we are in distress, but it doesn’t make any sense because Egypt itself as we well know, is not a place of bounty.

The name of the holiday we are celebrating these days is Hanukkah which means dedication – the verb lachnoch – shares the same root as the verb Lechanech – to educate – after Antiochus and his people defiled our Temple it was time to rededicate it and reeducate ourselves to prevent it from ever happening again. Making the same mistake can end up in paying a big price for it.

A great example of paying for past mistakes is the story of Jacob who suffered for 22 years thinking his favorite son was gone. Joseph disappeared at the age of 17 and gained power in Egypt at the age of 30. Two years later he was able to meet his father and at the age of 39 he finally reunited with him. Those 22 long years Jacob was paying for his wrongdoings and his mistakes since he himself had left his father’s house and spent 20 years at the house of Laban and then 2 more years on the returning journey. The 22 years Jacob was away from Isaac were the same amount of years he paid for not seeing his own son.

The second message in this Torah’s portion is to learn how we should treat others, instead of taking someone down, how we should elevate them. The Chief cupbearer tries to justify the forgetfulness of his past cellmate who helped him out, by emphasizing Joseph unworthiness, describing him as a young, foreigner, and a servant. Even though Joseph was able to interpret his dream successfully the cupbearer stops short of recommending him to Pharaoh.

The Ramban teaches us: Vehahavta Le- rehacha Kamocha and not Vehahavta Et Rehacha Kamocha.

What is the difference, you ask?

Le – To, highlights the idea of this important message: Love it, when your fellow human is experiencing good as you are! The Cupbearer’s fortune of getting out of prison should have encouraged him to help Joseph to experience the same fortune.

The third lesson we can learn comes from Joseph’s son Menashe, who came to this world to help his dad forget all the sorrow, all the troubles and wrongdoings from his past and most importantly, to take away his anger since at the end, the feeling of anger only hurts us and not the people who hurt us. So, in essence his birth gave Joseph the power to forgive. That should be the goal of every generation.

Every generation should think of how to make the world a better place, a place of light.

There is a great story about a man named Aaron Mordechai Feuerstein who was a third-generation owner of a textile factory in Massachusetts. On Dec 11, 1995 on his 70th birthday and on the 5th night of Hanukkah, the festival of lights, his factory burned to the ground. It took a week to put down the fire but it was overnight that 3000 of his employees lost their job. He was able to collect half a billion dollars from his insurance company and was faced with a big decision to make: to take the money, close shop and retire or build a cheaper factory and enjoy the rest of the money.

He called a press conference and announced to the whole world as he pledged to Boston to rebuild the factory and meanwhile to pay all his employees their full salary plus a bonus.

He told the story of his grandfather who built the factory in the 1900 and how his dad taught him that in a place where there is a moral vacuum, he should try to be the lifter. He was educated to always do everything in his power to elevate, to be a man who follows in the path of G-d and good!

During the time of the Maccabees the Greeks tried to also fight our spirit. They tried to take down our spirit. The same motive repeats in the story of Joseph whose spirt was taken down on so many occasions as his coat was taken down, as he was taken down to a pit and as he was taken down to Egypt. Since then, every year as we celebrate Hanukkah during the reading of this Torah portion we are reminded, as we are awakened to the light and the great teaching of light, to always find strength to light up our spirits!

 

The symbol of the oil/light burning in the Temple, was a symbol of Israel’s ongoing dedication to Jewish life even though we were not allowed to practice our religion. We learned that the light of Judaism could never be extinguished and the teachings continue. It is reassuring to know that long after the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed, Am Yisrael still celebrate Hanukkah as a festival of freedom. This is a true miracle!

Baruch Ata Adonai Eloeinu Melech a olam shehasa nisim lahavotenu bayamim haem bazman haze. Amen!