STAM
TORAH
PARSHAS MIKETZ/CHANUKAH
5777
“BONELESS WONDER”
Between the two World Wars, Winston Churchill,
the future legendary Prime Minster of Great Britain, was exasperated with the
impotence of the British government in regards to their foreign policy[1].
On one occasion, he addressed the House of
Commons and related that as a boy he always looked forward to the London
“But,” added Churchill, “there was one show
that my nanny would not let me see. She said it was ‘too revolting a spectacle
for the human eye.’ The sideshow was called ‘the Boneless Wonder’.
“Now thirty-six years later, I have finally
discovered the freak show that I wanted to see so badly. Where did I find it?
Not in the circus, but in the House of Commons, sitting on the front bench.
Here they are before me – the Boneless Wonder.”
After languishing in an Egyptian prison for over a
decade, Yosef was suddenly hoisted out of the doldrums of prison, and stood
before the mighty Pharaoh. Yosef successfully interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams,
explaining that they were foreshadowing visions of the future economic
situation of Egypt. After seven years of plenty there would be seven years of
intense famine, so intense that the previous years of plenty would be all but
forgotten.
For all intents and purposes that should have been
the end of Yosef’s audience with Pharaoh. He had interpreted the dreams and
assuaged Pharaoh’s frazzled nerves. But Yosef took the liberty of adding some
unsolicited advice. “Now let Pharaoh seek out a discerning and wise man and set
him over the Land
of Egypt
Who asked Yosef for his opinion? Moreover, how did
he have the audacity to tell the Pharaoh what to do?
In this exchange, we see a component of Yosef’s
greatness. Yosef understood that stating facts without solutions and practical
ideas is worthless. Yosef was unabashed to state what he felt was true and
just.
Standing up for the truth is by no means an easy
feat and Yosef paid dearly for it. Years earlier, when he was a seventeen-year
old boy, Yosef had dreams which indicated that he would rule over his brothers.
Yosef understood that his dreams were prophetic. A prophet is obligated to
repeat his prophecies and Yosef felt he was mandated to share them with his
brothers, despite their negative disposition towards him.
After years of anguish and pain because of those
dreams, one might think that Yosef would no longer be so assertive and
forthcoming. Yet he stood before the mightiest monarch in the world, and advised
him how to proceed. In fact, Pharaoh was awed by Yosef and the advice he
espoused, which moved Pharaoh to confer upon Yosef the very authority Yosef
suggested.
When Moshe Rabbeinu offered his blessing to each
tribe just prior to his death, he lauded the Levites for their courage to stand
up for truth. “The one who said of his father and mother, ‘I have not seen
him’; his brothers he did not recognize, and his children he did not know; for
they kept Your statement, and Your covenant they would preserve.[3]”
Rashi explains that when the nation committed the sin of the Golden Calf, Moshe
rallied the faithful to avenge the honor of G-d for the egregious sin that was
committed. He beckoned, “Whoever is for G-d (gather) to me”. It was the Levites
who heeded his call. They fulfilled Moshe’s command to kill the participants,
even though many of the sinners were their own close relatives (maternally).
Moshe then blessed the Levites that “G-d should
bless his army[4]”.
Rashi explains that this alluded to the future Levites who would repeat Moshe’s
call. In the time of the Chanukah miracle, the Chashmonaim priests sought to
avenge the honor of G-d from the Hellenists and Syrian-Greeks. Though vastly
outnumbered and outflanked they took up arms and fought against the myriads of
enemy forces. Their battle cry paralleled Moshe’s, “Whoever is for G-d (gather)
to me.”
Maharal[5] explains that the Greeks are symbolized
by a leopard, because of their extreme boldness and audacity.
The Greeks were confident of their culture and
beliefs, and sought to spread their culture to every people they encountered.
One of the failings of many of the Jews of that time was that even those who
maintained their faith, lacked the courage and temerity to defend their
traditions and beliefs.
Ultimately the righteous Jews who had the audacity
to strike back were blessed with miraculous victories. They were able to defeat
their enemy by employing the enemy’s own defining character trait – brazen
boldness. They would not be intimidated by their far superior foes and
ultimately vanquished them. It was only when the Macabees demonstrated ‘holy audacity’,
and uncompromised pride for their identity, that they were victorious.
Alexander Hamilton once quipped that, “Those who
stand for nothing, will fall for anything.”
To be a leader one must be ready to stand up for
his cause. In our world, we are very disenchanted by feckless politicians whose
opinion reflects which way the political tides are blowing. Someone who changes
his opinion to that of the masses is surely not staunch or passionate about his
own views.
A true leader must believe in what he stands for
and be ready to ‘pledge his sacred honor’[6] to his cause. Yosef had that
moral strength and conviction. The prophet compares Yosef to a raging flame which
consumes everything in its path, most notably the pernicious influence of Eisav[7].
The Maccabees possessed that same fierce drive and
determination. They had an inner fire that could not be quelled, even in the
face of insurmountable odds. In a certain sense the Chanukah miracle was a
reflection of the inner passion of those who were the catalysts of the miracle.
The fires atop the Menorah which would not go out were an external
manifestation of the internal fire that raged in the hearts of the valiant Maccabees.
The Kabbalists write that one should gaze at the
Chanukah lights during the first half hour after they are lit because they
contain tremendous spiritual energy. It seems that they also contain a
reflection of the inner flame within ourselves.
One of the many timeless lessons of Chanukah is
feeling proud of our identity. We should never seek to ‘water down’ our observance
so that we better fit in with society. We are the sole bearers of a torch that
miraculously has never been extinguished, despite the howling winds of time. It
is because we have kept that torch aglow by never being embarrassed to hold it
aloft.
“Whoever is for G-d (gather) to me”
“G-d should bless his army”
Rabbi
Dani Staum, LMSW
Rabbi,
Kehillat New Hempstead
Rebbe/Guidance
Counselor – ASHAR
Principal
– Ohr Naftoli- New Windsor
[1] This was
especially true in regards to the Allied policy of appeasement, allowing Hitler
to proceed as he willed, falsely hoping that allowing him some gains would
satiate him.
[2] 41:43
[3] Devorim 33:9
[4] Ibid, v. 11
[5] Ner Mitzvah; Maharal has a lengthy
treatise explaining the detailed dream of Nebuchadnezzar from the book of
Daniel. The dream contained four beasts, which Daniel explained were
representations of the four major exiles the Jews would be subject to throughout
history. The third beast was a leopard, a reference to Greece
[6] In the words of the
revolutionaries who fought for America ’s
independence from Britain
[7] “The house of Ya’akov will be fire, the house of Yosef a
flame, and the house of Eisav for straw; and they will ignite them and devour
them. There will be no survivor to the house of Eisav, for God has spoken.”
(Ovadiah 1:18)
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