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                                                                                                                     B”H

Miketz – Chanukah 5779

This week’s Torah portion Miketz, coinciding with Chanukah, has a very significant and relevant message to each of us today.

In our Torah portion we learn about Joseph, a Jew, who entered Egypt in slavery having been purchased and traded multiple times after being kidnapped and sold by his brothers. In every environment where he is, he excels in an extraordinary way. In his first position as a servant in Potifar’s (a Minister in Pharaoh’s court) home, he became the CEO. In prison, he immediately rises to the top and becomes the jail-keeper’s personal representative in keeping order. He further reveals his brilliance by interpreting dreams that would occur precisely in the way that he stated. He then becomes the second most powerful person in Egypt, single-handedly responsible for not only salvaging Egypt and saving its population from hunger and starvation, but also supplies the needs for all the surrounding lands.

This is the story of a single Jew who joins the succession of his majestic, royal ancestry to make a positive difference in the world, utilizing every aspect of his capacity.  Joseph is recognized for his intellectual powers, management capacity and highest levels of ethics, morality and trust. It is noteworthy that in all his successes he gives pubic credit and recognition to Almighty G-d, thereby promulgating faith and reliance on G-d.

This is not only the story of Joseph. It is the story of the Jewish people who are Al-mighty G-d's representatives to bring light into the world. Joseph emphasizes that special role that the Jewish people have in this world and our innate capacity to connect with the most energetic source of light in the world, Al-mighty G-d, to fulfill this holy task and mission.

The holiday of Chanukah also sends this very significant message, as a small group of dedicated Jews who sought to serve G-d freely withstood and overcame the mightiest army in the civilized world at that time. The objective was to kindle lights and to bring enlightenment, light, goodness and holiness into an otherwise dark world and space.

It is the reason that the Chanukah candles/Menorah is lit in a place where it proclaims its visibility in the most prominent manner.  The Talmud tells us that the time of the lighting of the candles is until the last person who boards up the storefronts leaves the marketplace, or another interpretation of that statement is until even those who generally are somewhat rebellious against what is good and proper also are challenged by light which will surely illuminate and permeate them.

Legally it would have been permissible to kindle the lights of the Holy Temple with the defiled, impure oil. G-d caused a supernatural, over-the-top miracle in finding a single carafe of holy oil and then allowing it to light for enough days (eight) for them to replenish the pure oil. Al-mighty G-d tells the Jewish people and teaches us a lesson for all of history that even light sometimes can be construed and utilized in negative ways. The flashing lights, that sparkle and glow in the centers of the world’s hedonism, are bright and forceful but not necessarily good and positive.

As we light up the world, we must make sure that it is a light that dispels the darkness not a light that summons one to the darkness.

It was about 32 years ago that our first public Menorah illuminated Bal Harbour Square. It was 14 feet high with giant cotton wicks and oil but stood somewhat lost in the shadows among the vast array of colored, secular seasonal lights that surrounded it. Many people commented that we must do something to emphasize the Menorah lights’ presence. That year, on the eighth night of Chanukah when all eight torches were flickering on top of our Menorah, there was a sudden electrical blackout in the entire area. Everything was dark. No streetlights, no holiday lights, no shopping lights. No light except for that Menorah standing in the Square of Bal Harbour, with its eight lights plus the serving light burning with bright and dancing flames, proclaiming that when all artificial light somehow recedes into darkness, the holy lights of Chanukah continue to illuminate and dispel the darkness.

Joseph said Thank You to G-d. The Maccabbees said Thank You to G-d. And we must say Thank You to G-d.

May we all have an enlightened Chanukah with everything good. Have a great Shabbos, a good week, a happy Chanukah and a Chodesh Tov.

The Shul Pushka Campaign

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