We left off last week’s parsha with Yosef, all but forgotten, in the Egyptian prison cell. As Parshas Mikeitz begins, we see that all the preceding events paved the way for the subsequent salvation.
…וַיִּשְׁלַח פַּרְעֹה וַיִּקְרָא אֶת יוֹסֵף וַיְרִיצֻהוּ מִן הַבּוֹר
So Pharaoh sent and summoned Yosef, and they rushed him from the dungeon… (41:14).
The Toldos Adam says that Pharaoh called for Yosef Hatzadik – וַיְרִיצֻהוּ מִן הַבּוֹר – and they needed to rush him out! Yosef is sitting in prison for twelve years – sitting in a terrible darkness – and they needed to hurry him up. Any other person in such a situation would run as fast as he could! But Yosef had to be commanded to run because he was inherently calm. He knew that whatever Hashem decides is what will be.
Yosef was perfectly content and knew without a shadow of a doubt that Hashem runs the world. After having experienced one improbable and unlikely event after another, he understood full well that everything had always been in Hashem’s trustworthy Hands – אין עוד מלבדו – there is nothing else but Him.
In all probability, the most well-known question in the entire gamut of Jewish literature is the question that is credited to the Beis Yosef. The Syrian-Greeks contaminated all the oil in the Heichal during their occupancy of the Holy Land, and when the Chashmonayim prevailed and returned to the Mikdash, they were able to locate one sealed flask of oil. Although the flask contained only enough oil for one night, it miraculously burned for eight. Asks the Beis Yosef, the miracle then was only for seven days, as the first night was not a miracle at all. Why do we celebrate a seven-day miracle for eight days?
In offering his approach to answer this question, the Alter of Kelm, R’ Simcha Zissel Ziv Broida (1824-1898) cites the story of Rabbi Chanina Ben Dosa’s daughter (Taanis 25a):
The tzaddik Rabbi Chanina Ben Dosa was exceptionally poor, and his household had to subsist on the most basic provisions. One Friday night, after Shabbos had already been welcomed, Rabbi Chanina noticed that his daughter was despondent. He asked, “My dear daughter, why are you sad?” She responded, “I used vinegar in my Shabbos lamps instead of oil; they will surely go out imminently and we will be left in complete darkness on the holy Shabbos.”
Rabbi Chanina replied, “It matters not – it is of no significance.
מי שאמר לשמן שידלק יאמר לחומץ שידלק – He Who says oil should burn will say that vinegar should burn.”
Rabbi Chanina was expressing a fundamental principle. The fact that the juice of an olive can be burned as fuel is no less miraculous than if vinegar would burn. It is only that we are accustomed to the fact that olive oil burns, and so we take it for granted. But, fundamentally, just because we are used to it does not remove it from the realm of the supernatural. Thus, if shemen zayis can burn, it is equally possible and reasonable for the Programmer of “nature” to allow vinegar to accomplish the same task.
Says the Alter of Kelm, seven days of Chanukah commemorate the miraculous feat that oil which should naturally last for only one night burned for seven additional nights. The added day of Chanukah is to enlighten us that even the first day was a miracle. The fact that oil can burn is a miracle unto itself. All the phenomena and processes with which we are familiar, and which we can name and seemingly predict, are in essence supernatural manifestations of the direct will of the Creator. Through the open miracles of Chanukah, we come to recognize that even the mere burning of a candle is equally miraculous.
On Thursday evening, August 13, 2020, Israeli singer Itay Amran sat down with some friends to play some music and to enjoy some good Erev Shabbos food. He played his guitar and they sang together until well past midnight. Suddenly, in a moment of spontaneity, Itay composed a new song – Pa’am Achat – which was captured on camera by a friend in attendance. The video went viral, causing him to run to the studio to record an “official” version of the new hit.
This song captures the essence of emunah, and is linked so perfectly to life itself. Like the message of the menorah: just as the Creator of the world has the power to burn vinegar like oil, so has He the ability to turn difficulty into growth, evil into good and darkness into light.
Wishing everyone a supernatural Shabbos-Rosh Chodesh-Chanukah!
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