| December 2008
Parashat Mikketz (Genesis 41:1 – 44:17)
The end of December has always felt like a dark tunnel to me – cold, black nights descending on us in the Northeast before afternoon seems to even get started, and a long winter stretching out for many months that are still before us. This time around, the year’s end brings harsh news: economic decline, financial scandals, the evaporation of funds in our Jewish community. The reports of unemployment among friends and community members are beginning to seep in. During this dark time, it would be easy to become depressed and lose hope.
It is at this time, especially, that we need the message of Chanukah. During the darkest period of the year, when night is longest, and when even the moon is not visible to shine its light upon us (the new moon re-appears each year only at the end of Chanukah, this year, on Friday night), what is our spiritual practice, but to light progressively more lights each night and to re-tell our people’s story of hope! The miracle of the Macabees, few in number and strength going forth to defeat the mighty Greeks, is not understood by our tradition to be their military victory, but rather it is our ever-possible hope, despite all odds, that God is with us, that those with goodness, honesty, and integrity can prevail, and that spiritual wholeness and light will emerge. Soon, the days will grow longer. A new (secular) year will begin. Change is around the corner. We celebrate possibility and hope with the candles of Chanukah.
May you and your dear ones have a very Happy Chanukah!
Sinai Update – Week of December 14-20, 2008
What does it mean to be “a dreamer”? Our ancestor Joseph aroused the anger of his brothers by suggesting that, in his dream, they all would bow down to him. Later, annoyed at their youthful, dreamy and favored brother as he wanders toward them, they insult Joseph, calling him a “dreamer,” a “master of dreams,” and then conspire to throw him into a pit. One would assume, in this context, that being a dreamer can only get one into trouble. We might think it better to be more grounded, connected to reality, less of a visionary idealist.
At least one rabbi, however, saw being a dreamer as a great asset, like having an alternative source of inspiration and power and meaning. Rabbi Jacob Charlop, in his Mei Marom, taught that hidden in the brother’s insult – “Here comes that master of dreams! Let us kill him and throw him into one of these pits” (Genesis 37:19-20) – is their amazement at the power of his dreams. Joseph had been told they were in the vicinity of Shechem, but somehow he had found them in Dotan! Beneath their contempt for him lies deep awe and respect. Joseph’s ability to dream his dreams and visions changes Jewish history and saves the Jewish people – and it eventually leads to meaningful reconciliation with his brothers.
Sinai Update – Week of December 7-13, 2008
The name “Israel” is used for the first time in this Torah portion, as Jacob is renamed after he wrestles with an angel of God. The angel says, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with beings, divine and human, and have prevailed.” (Genesis 32:29) To be a descendant of Israel, then, literally means we are “God-wrestlers.”
Being Jewish is often about challenging our concepts of God and self, and our relationships with others. It is often about a healthy inner struggle, much like Jacob’s during his lifetime, or, as Rabbi Norman J. Cohen writes, it is our responsibility as Jews “to change and grow; to integrate the conflicting sides of [ourselves]” on an on-going basis. To be continually “grappling,” wrestling with ourselves, our understanding of God, and our relationship to our community and others as we seek truth and goodness is the essence of being a Jew. |
