Lighting The Way! Happy Chanukah- Parshas Miketz
During the nights of Chanukah, Hashem makes it very easy to find the inner spark of a person. On the third night of Chanukah I went with a bunch of friends to an apartment complex so we could light the menorah with the residents, to find their inner spark and bring it out! One of the apartments had a Russian woman and she told us how it was very hard to do mitzvos openly in her childhood. Therefore the big flame of her judaism was reduced to only a spark and it is hashgacha that we were there to help re-ignite that flame. After she lit the menorah, we started to sing a customary song called Haneirot Halalu. As we progressed into the song you could see the tears of all those years held back, well up in her eyes. The most amazing thing to realize, is that all we need to do is ignite the spark of Chanukah into people! This is indeed a hard task and it is also a prime necessity so I have faith that with Hashem's help we can do it.
Chanukah is a time of rejoicing. A time when Hashem drops us just one more subtle hint that He is still here. We get the random surprises from time to time, but Chanukah is the biggest hint. We can apply this to any day of our lives and you will see it to be true. In this week's Parsha we see the next step of Yosef's journey, further and further away physically from his father. Yosef had a choice to let go and not be burdened by his morals and values yet he kept them. The real question is why would Yosef cling so strongly to something that he had no real connection to right then. The answer is that Yosef always knew there was light, he always knew that Hashem was there for him, so Yosef clung to that little bit of light that he knew of and as the timeline moved forward he got rewarded for it.
In the story of Chanukah the Maccabee family also had a choice to stray away from Hashem. They chose to cling to Hashem and defend His name. In every generation we have a chance to stray. But Jews have constantly chosen to hang onto the little packages that G-d gives us(the little bit of light) until we can get the bigger better package (flame). This situation has happened countless times and it will happen again until Hashem senses that the world is at the right level for redemption and that will be with the final package of all, with the coming of Mashiach!
A lichtegeh Chanukah
Have an amazing shabbos!
All the best
Moshiach Now!
Avroham Y Ross