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Chapter 43;v.14

יד וְאֵל שַׁדַּי יִתֵּן לָכֶם רַֽחֲמִים לִפְנֵי הָאִישׁ וְשִׁלַּח לָכֶם אֶת־אֲחִיכֶם אַחֵר וְאֶת־בִּנְיָמִין וַֽאֲנִי כַּֽאֲשֶׁר שָׁכֹלְתִּי שָׁכָֽלְתִּי

14. And God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, then I am bereaved.

כל המרחם על הבריות, מרחמין עליו מן השמים, וכל שאינו מרחם על הבריות, אין מרחמין עליו מן השמים. (שבת קנא:)

One who has pity on others will find that Heaven will have pity on him in turn. Jacob said to his sons: “May God put mercy into your hearts, so that you may have mercy on others. With this, you can approach the man, even before the Lord will cause the man to have mercy on you. This will insure the release of your other brother and of Benjamin, for if you yourselves will have mercy on others, you too will receive mercy from heaven.”(Imrei Shefer)

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Chapter 41;v.38

וַיֹּאמֶר פַּרְעֹה אֶל־עֲבָדָיו הֲנִמְצָא כָזֶה אִישׁ אֲשֶׁר רוּחַ אֱלֹהִים בּֽוֹ

And Pharaoh said to his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the spirit of God is?

It appears from the way Pharaoh framed the question: הנמצא כזה, that had it been possible to find another person with Joseph’s talents who was not Jewish, he would have preferred to do so. But, he said: “What can I do? There is no one else who can do the job as well – so, against my will, I must appoint this Jew”. (Rabbi Yitzhak Reines)

Haftarat Miketz -5781

This year is the rare occurrence of Chanuka starting on a Friday – which means that שבת פרשת מקץ is not Chanuka anymore – which causes the reading of the weekly Parasha Haftarah, which is almost never read, since the Haftarah of שבת חנוכה almost always supersedes it. But this year is an exception. If you ever wondered why a Haftarah for Miketz is printed in our Chumashim since it’s never said anyway – the answer is it’s printed there for this year. Remember the wisdom of שלמה המלך ordering to cut the baby in half in order to determine who the real mother is? That’s the story of הפטרת מקץ which we haven’t gotten to read for 20 years…

Excerpts from “Shabbat Shalom from Cyberspace”

By: David Bibi

You are the light; you are the miracle! 

I often marvel at and how Ezra and those of the Great Assembly with Divine inspiration divided and scheduled the weekly portion we read each Shabbat and how each Perasha seems to synchronize so well with the time of the year. This week’s portion, Miketz is almost always read during Hanukah. We must keep in mind that the Holiday of Hanukah is the last of our holidays and occurs about 200 years after Ezra, about 300 years after Esther and the Purim story and about 1000 years after the Torah was given.  Still a quick search yields dozens and dozens of hints, some almost absolutely amazing. A few of my favorites are:

Throughout the Torah at the end of every Parasha there is a note listing the number of verses in that portion. For some reason, at the end of the Parshat Miketz, in addition to giving the number of pesukim, we are also told that there are 2,025 words in the parshah. Why is it necessary to know the amount of words? The Vilna Gaon suggests that because one might wonder whether the words Poti Phera are a single or two words, the answer is given by summarizing the total. The Torah Temimah on the other hand suggests that these 2,025 words serve as a hint for the Holiday of Hanukah. The Rabbis tell us that beginning on the 25^th we light candles for eight nights. The mitzvah can be fulfilled with only one candle each night for the entire household. In Hebrew a word for candle is “ner” which has the numerical value of 250. Eight times 250 equals 2,000. And the rabbis teach that the event of lighting candles starts on the 25th day in the month of Kislev. Thus, 2,025 alludes to the 25th of Kislev and eight candles.

Upon giving advice to Pharaoh, Joseph suggest that Pharaoh appoint someone to prepare the land. He uses the word VeChimesh which some rabbis interpret as suggesting a tax of 20% (the word can also mean a fifth) over the course of the years of plenty to preserve something for the years of famine. But these letters Chet,mem and shin can also suggest something

for the years of famine. But these letters Chet,mem and shin can also suggest something else. According to the Midrash, the Syrian-Greeks forbade the Jewish people from declaring Rosh Hodesh and using their calendar – virtually eliminating the holidays. They also prohibited milah — circumcision — and Shabbat. The word “chimeish” (חמש) — “prepare” — is an acronym for these three edicts. The “chet” is for “Hodesh” — month — the “mem”is for “milah” — circumcision — and the “shin” is for Shabbat. Why these three?

The Greeks believed in the perfection of nature and held the human body as a work of art as we see through their paintings and sculpture. Brit or circumcision says that it is up to man to take what G-d gives him and through his actions, man brings about perfection. To the Greeks there was no interfering with the system. The declaration of the new moon fits into a similar

concept. The Greeks saw themselves subject to the stars, constellations and fate. Declaring a new moon meant it was in the hand of the Jewish people to determine which day fell when. More so, the declaration of a leap year adding a month meant that the Jews in essence saw themselves as above the stars and able to influence it. Finally Shabbat serves as a declaration that Hashem not only created the world, but continues to be involved with us on a moment by moment basis. The Greeks felt that there was certainly something to creation, but that creator set a system in place and moved on. Shabbat is Berit Olam LeDorotam – an eternal covenant through generations and declares the opposite.

(Keep in mind every time you tell someone Hanukah Sameyach or Happy Hanukah, the word Sameyach is formed from those same letters, reminding us of what the war was truly about,

Shabbat, Milah and Hodesh – all attesting to man’s relationship with G-d and G-d’s relationship with man.)

We call Hanukah, the festival of lights. Each evening we are commanded to light the menorah and the rabbis suggest that after lighting, one should ponder the flames, and view them as containing something of the mystical “Or HaGanuz” or the hidden light. We learn that on the first day of creation, Hashem created light, but on the fourth day, the sun. We are told that this primordial light was then hidden away. One place where we can access this all seeing and healing light is in the thirty-six primary candles of Hanukah. These thirty-six candles parallel the thirty-six hours during which the primordial Original Light served Adam before eventually being stored away. But it takes man’s actions, the action of lighting to reveal that light.

Let’s close with a final thought, one which really shows the difference between the Jewish people and the Greeks (and all mankind).

The Talmud teaches that Adam created in Late September noticed during the first three months of his life how the days slowly became shorter and shorter – He said: Woe to me, because of my sin the world is getting darker [as soon there would be no more light] and will return to a world of darkness and confusion. This must be my ‘death sentence’. Instead of accepting this imminent fate, Adam overcame his depression and took upon himself to fast, pray and repent. After eight days, Adam noticed that the days indeed had begun to lengthen.  Realizing that this is ‘minhago shel olam’ [the way of the world or nature], he made a celebration for eight days giving thanksgiving to the Almighty.  The next year, he made these days holidays.

The Rabbis explain that Adam had good intentions when making these holidays; however his offspring turned them into holidays of idol worship or better yet, nature worship. The Talmud tells us that this is the origin of Saturna and Kalanda which we explained eventually became Christmas and New Years.

The pagans celebrated this holiday as one of rebirth, of darkness into light and of the way of the world, of nature. This is the way of the world and this is reason to rejoice.

We too celebrate a holiday of light, where the flame can pierce and break the darkness, but in our holiday it is man who contributes, it is man who lights the flame and celebrates not nature but the miracle.