When you Choose Shabbat, you choose to learn that every Shabbat is different and special and this Shabbat is special indeed as it is also Shabbat Chanukah as well as Shabbat Mevarchim.
This week we read from Parashat Mikeytz (Genesis 41:1 through 44:17), the tenth weekly Torah portion in the annual cycle of Torah readings. According to Wikipedia, Mikeytz contains 7,914 Hebrew letters, 2,022 words, 146 verses and 255 lines of the Torah Scroll. The Parashat has the distinction of including the most letters of any of the weekly Book of Genesis Torah portions.
Miketz, Mikketz, Mikeytz or Mikeytz (מִקֵּץ), translated as “at the end“, includes Joseph’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams, Joseph’s rise to power in Egypt and Joseph’s testing of his brothers..
Rabbi Michael D Klein of Temple Torat Emet offers his insights on this week’s Torah reading, Mikeytz, for Shabbat December 28, 2024 aka the 27 Kislev 5785:
“Mikketz begins with Joseph in prison for a crime he is unjustly accused of committing. Somehow he finds favor with the warden and is placed in charge of the other prisoners. While these, Pharaoh’s chief butler and chief baker are also imprisoned and each has a dream which they relate to Joseph. He correctly, with G-d’s help, interprets the dreams – the chief butler is returned to his position but the chief baker is hanged. In a lapse of faith, Joseph asks the chief butler to remember him to Pharaoh, instead of trusting completely in G-d, and pays the price of an extra two years in the dungeon. Finally, Joseph is summoned by Pharaoh, who is troubled by a series of dreams whose meanings even the greatest advisors cannot interpret. Joseph is brought from the dungeon and successfully interprets Pharaoh’s dreams and is elevated to the position of Viceroy in charge of overseeing preparations for the seven good years and the seven lean years to come.
Likewise, the story of our joyous holiday of Chanukah, gives us the hope that freedom can overcome tyranny. Joseph, even in the dungeon, never loses faith. Judah Maccabee and the brave fighters overcome the Syrian-Greek empire despite overwhelming odds against them. The Maccabees defeated Antiochus and restored the Temple rekindling the lights for eight days with a single flagon of oil. These events teach us to maintain our faith in G-d despite potentially dire situations. As we celebrate the victories of the Maccabees and the elevation of Joseph let us draw courage from our faith and look to the future when our hostages will be reunited with their families and Israel will live in peace and security having defeated the designs of all enemies like Antiochus who sought our demise.”
Questions to consider:
- Why does Joseph not reach out to Jacob, to inform him of his status?
- Why does Joseph imprison Simon?
- Why does Joseph place the extra money and his cup in the saddlebag of Levi?
- Who is the interpreter that communicates between Joseph and his brothers?
Rabbi Michael D. Klein attended Yeshiva College of South Florida and served as Torah Reader, Hebrew teacher, Chazzan and spiritual leader of various synagogues throughout South Florida. In January 2015 he became Ritual Director, Bnai/Bnot Mitzvah instructor and 7th grade Hebrew instructor for Temple Torat Emet of Boynton Beach. In October 2019 he was accepted into an accelerated track and received his smicha from Yeshiva Adath Wolkowisk and has been the Rabbinic leadership of Temple Torat Emet since August 2020. In September of 2022 he was appointed Rabbinic and Spiritual Advisor of the Florida Region of FJMC.
Choose Shabbat; choose to celebrate, to light candles, sing songs and learn a little Torah.
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