Light and More Light!
This Chanukah, we ought to proclaim with every fiber of our being: No more darkness! We want light! Pure unadulterated light! We want Moshiach now!
Internecine Struggle
This week’s parsha is always read either before or during Chanukah. And although the story of Chanukah occurred over a thousand years after the Torah was written, there was always a belief that the Divine Author “planted” messages in the Torah portion that occurs around a Jewish Holiday that connect the two.
What is the connection between this week’s Torah reading and Chanukah?
A cursory examination of the parsha could yield the following analogy:
This week’s parsha is about the rivalry between Joseph and his brothers. The story of Chanukah is also about an internecine struggle; a struggle between those Hellenist Jews who assimilated into the pagan Greek culture and the Jews who remained loyal to their faith.
At first glance the comparison is not a very good one. The struggle between the Hellenists and the loyalists was an ideological and theological one. To put it simply: The Hellenists did not believe in the Torah and the loyalists did. The rivalry between Joseph and his brothers, however, seemed to be nothing more than one based on jealousy on the part of the brothers and the immature behavior of Joseph—tattling on his brothers and bragging to them about his superiority. How can one compare these two scenarios of conflict?
Conflict between Joseph and his Brothers was Ideological
In truth, the conflict between Joseph and his brothers was indeed an ideological one. It was about who was the true heir to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’s legacy of bringing the faith in one G-d and the dedication to justice and righteousness to the world.
Joseph’s brothers, commentators explain, felt that they were part of a chosen nation that did not have to conform to the norms and rules that applied to everyone else. They were in possession of a superior way of life that was a precursor to the one their descendants will eventually receive from G-d at Sinai. They believed that they were part of a new nation that was different and unique and had nothing to do with the rest of humanity. To them Judaism negated all of what existed in the past.
Joseph, by contrast, realized that although the Children of Jacob represented the nucleus of a new nation that would be given a revolutionary new code of ethics, their code of ethics was not to be a negation of the existing positive norms but an important addition to them.
Indeed, the name Joseph means addition. The “Joseph” approach to Judaism is to take the best of what already exists—totally rejecting their negative elements—and then increasing the good and enhancing it with something far more spiritual and G-dly.
In the mystical tradition of Judaism it is taught that indeed all the good in all other societies derive from G-d’s infinite wisdom. When this wisdom “trickled down” and was filtered through the minds and hearts of all the nations of the world most of the Divine wisdom and truth was lost, but some of it remained. By contrast, the Torah is G-d’s unadulterated wisdom, and it therefore contains all of the “wheat” of G-d’s wisdom without any of the “chaff.” Joseph, aware of this, knew that it was important to appreciate the good in the world and imbue it with added holiness.
Both Joseph and his brothers were interested in doing what was right in the spirit of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs.
Their debate, which degenerated into outright hostility, was about the ideal way to translate their ideas into reality. In the end Joseph’s approach prevailed. Joseph was the one who saved Jacob and his brothers as well as the rest of the world form famine and was the true precursor to the experience at Sinai and beyond.
The Hellenists Embrace of Pagan Culture
The Hellenists also negated Joseph’s approach of always looking for ways of taking the best of what exists and adding on the Jewish and G-dly touch to it. Instead they went to the opposite extreme and embraced all of Hellenic culture, including its paganism and immorality, and rejected any and every uniquely Jewish influence.
Obviously the Hellenists did not follow in the footsteps of Joseph’s brothers either, but when one strays from the ideals of constantly looking for ways of enhancing one’s Jewishness, it could degenerate into the total rejection of everything Jewish.
When one views Judaism to be a parallel and competing system to the others, one can sometimes choose Judaism and other times choose the other system. The Hellenists did just that. To them Greek culture seemed to be more appealing than its Jewish counterpart and they chose the former and totally rejected the latter.
Judaism: The Newest Religion
Conversely, when one has the “Joseph” view that no matter how good another system might be, Judaism seeks to appropriate that good and then enhance it, even as they reject the negative elements of that system. There is therefore never a contest between the two, because Judaism incorporates whatever good there may be in the other cultures and then adds on and by doing so radically transforms all that existed before.
Judaism is the “updated” “new and improved” brand in comparison to all the others. It is a distillation of all that’s good in the world plus the added G-dly light that transforms everything goodly into everything G-dly.
Adding on to the Existing Light
This Joseph approach to Judaism is the hallmark of Chanukah, the Festival of Light. It is all about adding on to the light that existed previously. If we lit one candle the first night we light two the second night. Chanukah is all about light and more light!
Chanukah is said to be a taste of the future Messianic Age. Contrary to some people’s impressions it is not a time when all of the past good ceases and some new form of good will emerge. Rather Moshiach will take the good that already exists, highlight it and separate it from the evil, and then add on to it new dimensions of G-dly energy and light. The world will undergo constant change and growth—the very meaning of the word Joseph.
Indeed, according to Talmudic tradition. Prior to the coming of Moshiach, the descendant of King David, there will be a Moshiach the descendant of Joseph. One way of understanding the need for the Moshiach the descendant of Joseph conceptually is that it would set the tone for the future Messianic Age. It is not about beginning a new world with a new set of laws. The Torah we have now will never change. Rather the Messianic Age is about taking all the good that we have now; revealing it, enhancing it and continually adding on to it—a perpetual Chanukah experience; light and more light.
Message in Time of Tragedy
And this message of “light and more light” that defines Chanukah will be appreciated this year perhaps more than any other time in recent history.
Just two weeks after the world was shrouded in darkness with the barbaric attack against the Chabad House in India, we are poised to celebrate the Festival of Light.
With the tragic loss of life—and specifically with the extinguishing of the light of the heroic Chabad Shluchim/emissaries who devoted their lives to bring warmth, love and light to countless people—the world has become a much darker place.
No more darkness!
This Chanukah, when we light the Chanukah candles, we will be required to invest so much more of the light of our souls to make up for the tragic loss of light. And each night we will add to the light of the preceding night, until the light will become so strong that it will banish the darkness forever.
This Chanukah, when we light the Chanukah lights we ought to add a prayer for G-d to bring an end to the darkness associated with exile and usher in the ultimate age of Light when peace will reign throughout the world—with the coming of Moshiach.
This Chanukah, when we light the Chanukah candles, we ought to add in our commitment to live our lives now permeated with the light of Torah and Mitzvos; in the manner that we imagine we will live them in the Messianic Age.
This Chanukah, when we give the traditional Chanukah gelt to our children let us think about the orphaned Moishe— who does not have parents to give him Chanukah gelt.
This Chanukah, when we spin the dreidel with the Hebrew letters that form the words “a great miracle happened there” we ought to think of the great miracle that enabled Sandra, the righteous gentile, to save little Moishe and to show gratitude for her heroism and devotion to the Holtzberg family.
This Chanukah, we ought to proclaim with every fiber of our being: No more darkness! We want light! Pure unadulterated light! We want Moshiach now!
From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Vayeishev by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.
