One of the anomalies of this year’s calendar is that we do not read Parashat Miketz during Chanuka. Usually, it’s a question of whether we will read Vayeshev or not but Miketz is almost always a part of Chanuka. So this is a rare chance to focus on just Miketz, the Parasha in which the conflict between Yosef and his brothers takes a seemingly cruel turn.
The Midrash at the beginning of the Parasha says
"קץ שם לחושך"....כיון שהגיע הקץ "ופרעה חולם"
“Hashem placed an end to the darkness” (a verse in Job, 28:3).... because the end (Haketz) arrived, “Paro dreams.”
The Midrash is referring to the first word of the Parasha (and the solstice) when it says that Hashem ends the darkness. In addition to the end of increasing darkness on December 21st, the Midrash is referring to the end of Yosef’s time in jail. R’ Yosef Soloveitchik (d. 1892) said that this Midrash is teaching how causation works. It is not that Paro’s dreams caused Yosef the dream interpreter to get out of jail. It is that Hashem first decreed that Yosef should get out of jail and then, as a consequence, Paro dreamed in order to fashion a way to get Yosef out of jail.
That is an important lesson about how to view the interaction of Hashem and events in the world. But it simply pushes the question of what brought Yosef out of jail back another step. Why did Hashem decree that the time had come?
Much Jewish suffering throughout history occurs because of the conflict between Yosef and his brothers. This coming Friday, we will fast for the 10th of Tevet. In terms of the destruction of the Temple, this is when the enemy laid siege to the city. But when we speak about the fasts on the 17th of Tamuz and the 9th of Av, there is always a Torah source as well, like the Golden Calf or the Spies. Where is the Torah source for the 10th of Tevet? R’ Shlomo Fisher in Yerushalayim says that this is the day that the brothers sold Yosef into slavery. The destruction of the Temple becomes possible because of the terrible division between the brothers generations before.
The Sages say that we continue to pay for the falling out between the brothers. The 10 Rabbinic martyrs in the time of the Second Temple suffered horrible deaths as part of our continuing atonement for the selling of Yosef.
But wait. We assume those numbers are connected: Since there were 10 brothers involved, so there were 10 martyrs. But how does one get to the number 10? Binyamin is not involved, and Reuven tries to save Yosef. That leaves nine brothers. The tenth is Yosef himself, who is also responsible for what happens. There are surely ways that he was the wronged party but not because he was innocent.
Let’s go back to the source of the conflict. It began when Yosef brought reports about his brothers to their father. There are many ways that commentators frame those disputes but that’s what they were, disputes. Yosef did not seek to work out the disputes with his brothers. He sought instead to prevail over them, to win. This is a style of conflict in which people do not listen closely to what is being said. They do not seek to learn from what others are saying, to refine their arguments through the conflict with others. What’s more, they seek every advantage by focusing on the worst in those they label their opponents. They cannot see any good in them because they only want to win. As a young man, that was Yosef’s style. For that style, he is judged as party to the conflict that seared a hole in the fiber of the Jewish people. He is not innocent.
Yosef’s punishment is slavery, which brings him down to Egypt. And then he is brought down further when he is put in jail. When our Parasha says that the end of darkness has come, it’s referring to the education of Yosef. He has learned to focus on the good and to take an interest in those around him. He noticed the upset in other prisoners’ faces last week; as he comes out of jail this week, proof that he can see the good and care for others comes in the fact that he is ready to marry. As a result of his progress, he names his first child Menashe, which means “to forget.” He thanks Hashem for the fact that he has forgotten “Amalee,” my “labor.” The Midrash relates this word to his former way of battling in argument. It is referring to the need to win rather than the need to learn from one’s adversaries and to judge them favorably.
What is he trying to accomplish in the trials he puts his brothers through this week? It seems cruel, but he wants to see if they too have learned to judge what happens for the best and to grant proper regard for each other. That is what we see as they debate the treatment they get from the leader in Egypt whom they see as a tyrant.
We are all charged with mending the tear in the Jewish people which began in the division between the brothers. As we all hope that Hashem will place an end to the darkness, it depends on our seeing the good and granting regard to each other.
