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Shabbat Shalom: Parshat Vayeshev Hannukah
Genesis 37:1-40:23
By Shlomo Riskin
Efrat, Israel - Joseph enters the stage of Jewish history with two dreams - and for the rest of his life it is dreams which inform his mission. This favorite son of Jacob is truly the "master of dreams" (Genesis 37:19), both in terms of his own dreams as well as in terms of the dreams of others - the ministers' dreams and Pharoah's dreams - which he interprets. But for now let us attempt to understand these two initial dreams of Joseph, the dreams for which his brothers are envious of him, even hate him (Genesis 27:8,10), indeed, the dreams which cause his doting father to rebuke him, but, also the very same dreams which Jacob guards, anxiously awaiting their realization (Genesis 37:10, 11, Rashi ad loc).
Joseph's first dream is sheaves of grain in the field, his brother's sheaves bowing down to his sheaves. His second dream is the sun, the moon and eleven stars bowing down to him (Genesis 37:7, 9). You will remember that his father Jacob's dream which he dreamt in Beth El contained both elements described in Joseph's dream: a ladder standing on earth (reminiscent of the sheaves, produce of land-earth) reaching to
the heavens (reminiscent of sun, moon, stars). But in Jacob's case the dream was one, his vision encompassed uniting heaven and earth, and G-d - not the human Joseph - was at its center. Moreover, Jacob's dream included
G-d's promise of his return to Israel, the land of his ancestors, whereas Joseph's dream seemed to focus on agricultural Egypt and cosmic domination. No wonder his brothers' jealously hated this megalomaniac upstart who sought not only familial but also
cosmicdominion!
But why did Jacob "guard" these dreams? I would submit that the patriarch had a very different interpretation of Joseph's dreams than did the brothers. He realized that two dreams which come together may in
actuality be strongly interconnected, that the two dreams can really be one dream. Hence the sheaves and the heavenly orbs might also represent a combined heaven and earth.
And whose task will it be to unite the two, to bring earth up to heaven, and heaven down to earth, to make the heavens and the earth stand together in sanctity and redemption? This vision of "perfecting the world in the kingship of the Divine" can only be effectuated by the human being, who is a creature of earth
(adam, adamah) formed in the image of the Divine, who is "dust of the ground inspired and ensouled by
the spirit-breath of G-d "(Genesis 2 :7). Hence Joseph, the human being, stands at the center of the dreams: he must be pro-active, he must initiate and be the main facilitator for the union between the material and spiritual, the suffusion of the Almighty throughout the entire universe. "And they (the children of Israel) shall make Me a Sanctuary so that I may dwell in their midst." Joseph's pivotal role in the dream is not necessarily a function of arrogance; it may well be a realization
of mission and responsibility, the expression of Israel's vocation as the bearer of the light of Torah to the nations of the world.
And this is precisely what Joseph will explain to Pharoah thirteen years later when he is removed from his dungeon-prison to interpret Pharoah's dreams: "It is not me; ( I am merely the messenger, the agent, albeit the active party). G-d will answer in accordance with the welfare of
Pharoah... The dreams of Pharoah are one; that which G-d is doing, He is
telling to Pharoah" (Genesis 41:16, 25).
From this perspective, it becomes far more than coincidence that the Festival of Hannukah falls out the week of the Torah portion of
Vayeshev. The very first commentary of Rashi on the first verse of the Torah, "In the beginning G-d created the heavens and the earth," queries
why the Torah begins with creation rather than with the first of the 613 commandments, "Make this month (of the exodus from Egypt) be the first month of the year for you." My revered teacher and mentor Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik zt"l suggests that the first verse is indeed in actuality the first commandment, an offshoot of the central Biblical command, "And
you shall walk in His (Divine) ways" : Just as G-d created, so must you human beings create; just as G-d stood at the abyss of darkness and declared 'Let there be light', so must you pioneer in places of darkness and bring light.
The revered eighteenth century Gaon of Vilna points out that the twenty-fifth word of the Bible is
Ohr, light; and on the twenty-fifth day of Kislev the victorious Maccabees brought light to a re-dedicated menorah of the Holy Temple by kindling a small cruse of pure oil. The initiative action of these religionists - on the field of battle as well
as in the consecrated space of the Holy Temple - pushed aside the darkness of Hellenist Syria with the light of Torah; and once the Jews began to bring the light, the Almighty saw to it that the menorah would remain aflame for more than 200 years. Our Holy Temple has as its goal the union of heaven and earth at the time of redemption. It is our vision that at the end of the days the nations of the world - the sun, moon and stars - will bow down in acceptance of the Torah's teaching that "nation shall not lift up sword against nation and humanity must not learn war anymore".
Shabbat Shalom and Hanukkah Sameah.
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