Mikeitz

פרשת מקץ וענייני חנוכה

This week’s Parsha opens by relating Pharaoh’s enigmatic dream and how nobody could figure out its interpretation until Yosef came along. The Parsha opens with the verse, “And so it was at the end of two years that Pharaoh had a dream”. The Midrash expounds on this verse by saying that the word “end” in the verse is referring to the end of darkness that had reigned in Yosef’s life theretofore. Once the end of darkness had come for Yosef, Pharaoh immediately had his dream. The Beis Halevi attempts to explain this cryptic Midrash by saying that all events in life have two components. The first is the “Sibah” or reason why something happens. The second is the “Mesovev” – the actual event that happens. In our daily existence, it is very easy to confuse the “Sibah” with the “Mesovev” and to think that the events which happen are random, and how we benefit from them is based on our good fortune. However, the Beis Halevi asserts that this Midrash is teaching us that indeed these two principles are often misunderstood. Yosef had been in prison for two years and when the time had come that Hashem wanted him released, immediately Pharaoh had his dream. In other words, Yosef did not get freed from prison because Pharaoh happened to have a dream which required interpretation, rather Pharaoh only had his dream because it was time for Yosef to be released! This novel outlook, explains the Beis Halevi, is not only true for Yosef, but rather the Midrash is teaching us that it is true for all of us in our daily lives. If a person makes money in the stock market, it is not that the stock happened to go up after he bought it and that is why he made money, but rather the stock only went up because it was decreed upon him by God that he should make money.

The Torah relates right afterward that when Pharaoh called for Yosef, they immediately extradited him from the prison, cleaned him up and brought him in front of Pharoh. The Seforno finds great significance in the speed in which Yosef went from being incarcerated in the King’s prison, with no hope of ever again seeing the light of day, to standing in front of the King and becoming the second most important person in Egypt. He says that this change happened almost instantaneously and similarly, he points out that every time the Jews have been redeemed, has been an abrupt occurrence, going from complete despair to the heights of triumph. The Seforno explains that the reason for this is to instill in us the message that the “nature” which seems to run things is indeed nothing more that the will of God playing out in this world. If change were to happen any slower, people would be more likely to assume that it was random and based on the natural course of events. By allowing change to be so rapid, Hashem is teaching us that He is the sole cause for everything and that the events which seem “natural” are nothing more then Hashem carrying out His will.

Yosef repeatedly attempts to instill this message in everybody around him by constantly mentioning that all of his abilities are solely from God. For example, when the Baker and the Wine Maker ask Yosef to interpret their dream, Yosef tells them that only Hashem contains the interpretations. Similarly, when Yosef appears before Pharaoh and is asked to interpret his dream, Yosef interrupts Pharaoh in the middle of his request to make it perfectly clear that it is only with Hashem’s permission and aid that he would be able to decipher his dream. Later on in the Parsha when Yosef reveals himself to his brothers, he reassures them by telling them that he is in no way mad at them for all that befell him because he didn’t consider them to be responsible for his detour in Egypt, but rather he considered Hashem to be the culprit. We see clearly that one of the recurring themes in Yosef’s life was his constant attempt to inculcate in himself, and to demonstrate to others the absolute belief that everything that befalls us in our lives emanates solely from God and is happening in order to bring out His will.

With all that we have written, one shouldn’t make the mistake of relying so much on his belief in God that he ceases to participate in normal day to day activities and responsibilities relying on God for his needs. This is not a correct attitude in spite of what we have said. Hashem created a world in which events seem to run normally and He expects us to live within that world paying our respects to that system and acting according to its rules, however, we are not to make the mistake of believing that those rules have any more importance than the fact that Hashem chose them to carry out His will.

The Gemorah in Shabos (31b) says that Seder Zeraim is referred to as the Seder of “Belief”. The Yerushalmi explains that one needs to believe in God in order to plant his seeds in the ground and trust that they will grow. The Chidushe Hrim explains further that the belief that we are referring to is the belief that although we go through the motions of planting seeds in the ground, and that these motions normally yield fruit, we firmly believe that each and every time is a miracle and there is no reason that in reality the fruits should grow unless God wants them to each and every time and the only reason we actually plant the fruits instead of merely praying is because Hashem told us to go about our existence as if this world runs on natural law. This is why Seder Zeraim is called the Seder of “Belief” – because one might have thought that he demonstrates a higher belief in God to just pray for his needs and wait for God to answer his prayers. However Chazal are educating us that in fact through a man’s behavior and his attitude during the planting of his produce, he can actually portray a greater belief in God – i.e. that even though he goes through the motions which normally produce the desired results, he still has no faith in that process and doesn’t believe that it was his motions which allowed him to succeed, but rather exclusively because Hashem wanted him to.

Truthfully, this message of constant belief that it is only Hashem that runs the world and is responsible for every interaction therein, is one of the primary messages during the holiday of Chanukah that we are now celebrating. The Gemorah in Shabbos says that the holiday of Chanukah was established by Chazal in appreciation for all the miracles Hashem performed for us and is celebrated by thanking God, but not necessarily from refraining from doing activity like other holy days. The Ran adds that it is called Chanukah because the Jews “rested” (חנו) and established the holiday to thank God for all the miracles He performed for us. The Maharsha asks, how does “resting” have anything to do with thanking God? If anything, one would think that refraining from all activities would be a more appropriate fulfillment of the word “rest”! Perhaps we could answer by saying that after the Jews succeeded in defeating the massive Greek army, there was a strong urge for them to celebrate their military victory and feel a false sense of pride as if they had won on their own. However, Chazal wanted to make it perfectly clear to all future generations that this was not the case and that the only way we managed to defeat the wicked Greeks was because God allowed us to. In order to prevent this, they instituted various precautions to constantly remind us that our victory, and indeed any victory is dependant solely on Hashem’s grace. In the prayer, we say, “God fought out fight, and destroyed our enemy”. This is also why they called it “Chanukah”. In order to show that essentially, we were resting when Hashem fought the battle for us. It is incumbent upon us during these days to constantly remind ourselves that any accomplishments that we have are only made possible because Hashem allows them to be and to never be fooled into believing that we can make it on our own.

May Hashem help us to always realize that all our successes are only from Him!