Miketz and Chanukah Every year, Miketz is read on Chanukah and there are plenty of ideas to go around that attempt to connect the two. Heres the truth. There is no connection. It just happened that way and it did not have to happen that way. No one decided to celebrate Chanukah on 25 Kislev because we read Miketz. But that does not mean the ways we connect Miketz to Chanukah are meaningless. Not at all. In fact, I think it makes them MORE meaningful, as long as we are honest about the relationship between the two. This way is more meaningful because it acknowledges that our subjective feelings and expressions of religious significance define the experience for us. That frees us to seek out those experiences in the way that is most meaningful to us. So lets do that. To me, one meaningful connection between Miketz and Chanukah can be demonstrated by looking at leadership. In Miketz, Joseph and the Pharaoh become partners in a holy venture. They are sustaining a vulnerable public together. Pharaoh has authority but he partners with Joseph to create a balanced partnership between the born monarch and the man of the people. Joseph dies and no one takes his place. The voice of the people is silenced and the people are enslaved until the whole thing crumbles. The Maccabees were valiant zealots who restored our autonomy by driving the Syrian-Greeks our of our Temple and Jerusalem. The Hasmonean family returned to their post as priests and religious authority of Israel. They also usurped the political leadership that was supposed to belong to the Davidic family and Judah. They dissolved the partnership and there was no more balance. It took only a few years to completely corrupt the entire hierarchy. And it was only a few more years until the corruption corroded their family from the inside that they brought an even greater oppression and destruction upon Israel then the threat they vanquished. Thats a common lesson I see in Miketz and Chnaukah that speaks to me. Leadership. Life requires balance. Goodness requires balance. Balance is just a fancy word for comfortable tension. It takes a lot of awareness and effort to properly calibrate tension in order to create balance. Pay attention to the tension and feel it so you can try to balance it. That means in order to balance ourselves we need to embrace the tension. Find the tension. Feel the struggle. Dont seek to eliminate the tension. Spend your life trying to balance it. Tonight is the fourth night of Chanukah. Perfect balance. Four lit. Four yet to be lit. Tonight is the night of balance. Happy Chanukah and Shabbat Shalom.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 20:34:09 +0000