Miketz and Chanukah 5785

Traditionally in the story of Joseph, his dreams and their coming to fruition are the ones that we read in the Torah during Chanukah. In this week’s Torah reading we find Joseph interpreting the dreams of Pharaoh and from that his ascension to the head of state in Pharaoh’s palace. It is the coming to reality of the dreams of Joseph, where his brothers will unknowingly bow down to him, just as he had envisioned and which they mocked him for even coming up with such a dream. The story as played out will not only allow Joseph’s dream to become a reality, but also the promise of God to Abraham, which can only be fulfilled by Jacob and his sons traveling down to Egypt, where they sojourn for almost four hundred years and become slaves to the Pharoah before becoming a great nation that will return to the Promised Land.

Within the narrative of this week’s Torah reading we will find two very significant moments that I believe define the reading for Chanukah. The first takes place when the cup bearer of Pharaoh remembers a goodness performed by Joseph to him when both had been jailed. As often takes place in Jewish history, the cup bearer had been purposefully neglectful, and forgot how Joseph had interpreted the dreams of both himself and Pharoah’s chief baker. Joseph’s interpretation of their dreams came true. The cup bearer was freed from prison and was returned to his lofty place in Pharaoh’s palace and the chief baker was in the end executed.

The cup bearer was so self-consumed that he purposefully forgot the request of Joseph to remember him so that he too could be freed from prison for a crime he was accused of but did not commit. More often than not, we are aware that in most instances, what Joseph was accused of by Potiphar’s wife, is truth. We can never condone such acts. Our news is filled with celebrities who find themselves in such situations, thinking that their celebrity status permits them to act differently. On the other hand, occasionally, men and women alike are accused of sexual impropriety that is not factual. Joseph was one such individual, according to the Torah’s narrative. The rage of his accuser, Potiphar’s wife, and her complaint was in fact her taking out her anger at Joseph for his not accepting her sexual advances. We recently heard of one accuser recant her testimony some twenty years later, which at the time and forever altered the lives of three young men who were lacrosse players at Duke University and whom she accused. Getting back to the Biblical narrative, when no one else could interpret Pharaoh’s nightmares, which the Torah classifies as dreams, does the cup bearer remember Joseph and the kindness done?

Such is the story of Chanukah and much of Jewish history, where rulers and others purposefully forget and permit anti-Semitism to rise to a level of extremism. Is it that they forgot or purposefully forgot? Are they more concerned about their status or about the truth and the individual? Often we find that anti-Semitism wreaks it ugly head with false accusations against Jews and the Jewish people.

What makes Chanukah so meaningful, despite it being minor, is how the lights of the menorah and the eating of latkes brings even the cultural Jew to express his or her Jewish identity, bringing a glow to one’s face. It is celebrating with family and friends, just as Joseph will, in the end, celebrate his dreams with his brothers, their families, and their father Jacob down in Egypt. It’s hearing others wishing as a happy holiday or Happy Chanukah when they recognize that we are Jewish.

The second significant moment occurs at the end of the Torah reading. It occurs as the brothers are accused by Joseph of stealing his wine cup. What is most significant, and which I believe parallels Chanukah, is that it is Judah who stands up in front of Joseph to protect Benjamin and his brothers from the false accusation and the planting of the cup by Joseph in Benjamin’s sack of flour. And it is Judah the Maccabee in the Chanukah story who is the hero as well which ends with the miracle of the cruse of oil. It is Judah the Maccabee who follows his father’s Mattathias’s lead and does what it is right. From the small town of Modiin, they carry out a revolution against the Graeco-Romans who seized the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and defiled it. They also enacted legislation that forbade the practices of Judaism, such as studying Torah, keeping kosher and circumcising our males. Many Jewish individuals in the cities turned toward assimilation and the acceptance of the Graeco-Roman culture. But Judah the Maccabee, from a small town, recaptured not only Jerusalem and the Holy Temple, but also captured the inner feelings of the Jewish spirit within those who had acculturated into the ways of Greek practices.

So is it the fanciful story of Joseph and his dreams that is the rational of reading this Torah reading on Chanukah? Is it his dreams that bring us to find beauty and hope for a future in Jewish life and promises fulfilled by God to Abraham? Or is it the connection of Judah and Judah the Maccabee who stood up for what was right and for the dignity of Jewish life, Jewish practice and for our fellow Jew? Is it most telling that the Temple in Jerusalem is found in the territory that was given to the tribe of Judah, or that King David was the descendant of Judah, and that King David established Jerusalem as the capital city of Judaism? It is said that the Mashiach, the Messiah, will be a descendant of King David and Judah. The symbolism is apparent.

Our connection to both stories is what makes the reading in the Torah connect us with the story of Chanukah.

Am Yisrael Chai!

Bring then Home Now!!!

Wishing you a Chag Urim Sa’meach, a Happy Festival of Lights and a Shabbat Shalom.

Rabbi K