Written by: Nathan Light
In this week’s Torah portion, we come across the story of Joseph and his descent into Egypt. Before being sold as a slave, Joseph was thrown into a pit by his brothers and the Torah depicts this event as follows: “…they cast him into the pit; and the pit was empty, no water was in it” [Genesis: 37: 24] Of course, if “the pit was empty”, it would be obvious that “no water was in it”! Why the redundancy?
The Talmud (a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history) answers that something is being hinted at within the verse. The Torah was trying to say that indeed “no water was in it” but there was something else in it: Snakes and scorpions. [Tractate Shabbos Page 22a].
This teaching is found in a very peculiar location within the Talmud. This specific section of the Talmud doesn’t discuss the story of Joseph what so ever, rather it discusses an entirely different topic: The holiday of Channukah. Unlike most of the other Jewish holidays, Channukah pretty much lacks a well-known text that illustrates its historical background. One of the only places that Channukah is spoken of in Jewish literature is in this very section of the Talmud. It starts off with a short historical description of what happened on that particular day and then goes on to discuss the different laws that pertain to celebrating the holiday in our time.In the middle of teaching these laws, the Talmud all of a sudden seems to take a break from discussing the topic Channukah! Out of nowhere it discusses the very verse in this weeks parsha (mentioned above) along with its explanation of “no water was in it”. This is extremely strange! Why does the Talmud deviate from it’s discussion and what in the world does the meaning of our verse have to do with the holiday of Channukah!?
Firstly, it’s important to define precisely where in the discussion of the Talmud does this digression arise. Within the laws of lighting the Channukah candles, the Talmud says that if the candles are placed too high above ground we have not properly fulfilled our obligation in lighting them. Immediately after this comes the “deviation” of our verse along with its explanation. After this the Talmud returns to its topic of the Channukah candles, and goes on to say that it’s best to place the Channukah candles by the doorstep of our homes. So, what intrinsic connection exists between our verse and the laws describing the placement of the Channukah candles?
Briefly, the main part of the story of Channukah describes how the Jews returned to the Holy temple after defeating the Greek army (we were under the Greek exile at the time). The temple was in shambles for it had been defiled by the Greeks, and the Jews were only able to find but one jar of oil, containing just enough oil to light the Menorah (the seven branched candelabrum of the Temple in Jerusalem) for one day only. But, as we know, God caused a miracle to occur and the Menorah remained alit for eight days.
The MaHaRaL of Prague (Rabbi Judah Loew, 1525 – 1609, an important Talmudic scholar, Jewish mystic and philosopher) explains that the miracle of the oil was only meant as a sign. Its purpose was to show the Jews that their victory over the Greek army was just as much an act of God as the miracle of the oil itself. They were meant to understand that God is responsible not only for the occurences that seem completely out of this world and above the laws of nature (i.e the miracle of the oil), but even for those occurences that appear to be brought about by man, within the laws of nature (i.e the miracle of the war).
Going back to the story of Joseph: Joseph’s descent into the pit could be viewed as the first step in the later-to-be Egyptian exile. It was after being thrown into the pit that Joseph was sold and brought to Egypt where years later his family would join him and eventually be forced into slavery for 210 years!Who knows what thoughts were plaguing Joseph after being thrown into a pit by his own brothers, his own flesh and blood! And after discovering he wasn’t alone in the pit, but was accompanied by snakes and scorpions, he must’ve imagined that death was right around the corner. But the strangest thing happened: Joseph wasn’t harmed at all!
At this point Joseph realized that everything he was experiencing was a direct manifestation of the will of God. What seemed to be a planned conspiracy by his brothers was in fact a heavenly designed pathway. (*See footnote*)This event changed Jospeh’s outlook for the rest of his life and throughout his experiences in Egypt, Joseph felt safe and secure that God was watching over his every move and no matter what occurred, he was being cared for in the best way possible.
This was not only a message for Joseph during his descent into exile, but for our entire nation in our future descents into exile:In the future we may become caught in the midst of a raging war with our enemies or find ourselves in a land that is not our own, and even though we may undergo tremendous pain and suffering and feel that the greatest gap has evolved between us and God… He is infact right by our side, doing only what’s best for us, even if we don’t see it that way.
And of course this is not only a lesson for Jewish exile, but for everything that occurs throughout our lives, in our day to day experiences. The Baal Shem Tov (Rabbi Israel son of Eliezer, the founder of Hasidic Judaism) says that not a leaf falls from a tree without God carefully guiding it. We, as Jews, are supposed to believe that God is not limited in any fashion, and controls every little aspect in each and every one of our lives.
Now we can understand how our (above mentioned) verse fits in so beautifully within the Talmudic discussion of the laws of Channukah. The Channukah candles serve as a reminder of God’s supervision and how closely He cradles us in His arms. Therefore we are taught that we are not to place the candles too high above ground, symbolizing that we shouldn’t falsely believe that God only exists in heaven and merely watches over us from up high, without any involvement in our lives.Rather, the Channukah candles should be placed at our doorstep, symbolizing that when we leave the confines of our own homes into a world filled with so much danger and darkness, we should instill ourselves with faith that even down in this world our lives are being directed by the hand of God, Who is not only watching over us, but guiding us throughout every step of the way.
Good Shabbos and Happy Channukah,
NZL
taken from Tzipiyah.com
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