The Torah reading of Mikeitz always coincides with Chanukah. According to the 17th Century sage known as the Shaloh, one may always find a connection between a Holiday and the weekly Torah reading that coincides with that Holiday.
When Pharaoh was disturbed by dreams that none of his subjects could decipher, Joseph successfully interpreted them as a warning of impending disaster.
Yoseph was sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt. When accused of trying to seduce the wife of his master, Potiphar, Yoseph was sentenced to languish in an Egyptian dungeon. Two years after he successfully interpreted the dreams of the king’s butler and baker he is summoned to interpret Pharaoh’s dream. Yoseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream as a prediction of seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Yoseph advised Pharaoh to store grain that would save Egypt and the surrounding area. Pharaoh made Yoseph his viceroy. Yosef’s brothers arrived in Egypt to purchase grain during the famine. It was the first time in 13 years that Yoseph saw them.
This week’s parsha is always read during Chanukah and there is a deep connection between the two.
Yaakov shared this sentiment with Pharaoh when they first met. He expressed his dissatisfaction with his life in order that Pharaoh would not err to think that Yaakov and his children would suffice with settling “in the land of Egypt, in the finest region of the country,” and be content with living off “the fat of the land,” which Pharaoh had given them; redemption is what was important to Yaakov.
The institution of the Minyan is a crucial factor in facilitating our spiritual experience of prayer. When 10 Jews gather together, they generate a spiritual force that is infinitely more potent than the spiritual energies possessed and generated by each individual.
All the while that Moshiach Tzidkeinu has still not arrived – tangibly and overtly – one’s days are incomplete, his life is truly lacking. Yaakov expresses this sentiment by saying that even the 130 years of his life were seen as but “few” [meaning lacking], for the redemption had not yet been realized in the world.
If the exile is likened to a dream, and that G-d appears to us to be in a “sleep state,” then we are now witnessing the transition described in the Biblical verse, from: “Awaken, why do you sleep O G-d” to: “and G-d awakened from His sleep.”
December 6, 2018