Hanukah Miketz Not in Spite of, but Because of

The darkness as the cause of light

• Rabbi David Sutton begins with the pasuk in Michah, Perek ז: “My enemies should not rejoice over me: although I have fallen, I have risen; although I sit in darkness, Hashem is my light.”
• The word ki often means “because,” but here it might seem to mean “although.” Rabbenu Yona, in Shaare Teshuva 2:5, cites a Midrash that reads it as “because”: someone who relies on Hashem must recognize that “the darkness will be the cause of his light.”
• The Midrash in Midrash Tehilim, mizmor 22, explains: “If I had not fallen, I would not have risen; if I had not sat in darkness, Hashem would not have given me light.”
• Rabbi David Sutton emphasizes that this is not simply a matter of encountering a problem and then being rescued from it. It is mistaken to think one would have been better off without the problem: the difficulty was necessary, and one would not have reached one’s present circumstances without it.

Yosef Hasadik: accepting the darkness

• Yosef Hasadik’s sale into slavery and imprisonment were necessary steps toward becoming viceroy of Egypt. They led to his interpreting the dreams of the butler and baker, and ultimately Paroah’s dreams.
• The Sefarim draw a further lesson from “כי אשב בחשך” (“I sit in darkness”): one does not fight or run away from the darkness, but accepts it with Emunah and Bitachon, while still doing hishtadlut.
• Yosef was on an especially high level. He was held accountable for asking the wine steward to remember him twice rather than once. The Sefat Emet, on Parashat Vayeshev and Miketz, asks why Yosef did not try to get out of prison: he had connections and influence, and could have sent a message to his father.
• The Sefat Emet answers that Yosef believed his situation was what Hashem wanted and what he needed. He acted only when the dreams came, which he took as a sign from Hashem; even then, he did only what was necessary and nothing more.

Hanukah and the light that comes from darkness

• Hanukah falls during the darkest time of the year, when days are shortest and nights longest. The Greeks darkened the eyes of the Jewish people through decrees against Rosh Hodesh, Shabbat, and Brit Milah.
• The beracha at a Brit Milah is Koreh HaBrit—“Hashem cut the deal.” Rabbi David Sutton explains that in those days a covenant was made by taking an animal and cutting it in half.
• Rav Chaim Palaggi, in Moed L’Kol Chai, chapter 27, letter 78, notes that the Rasheh Tevot of Hodesh (ח), Shabbat (ש), and Kritat (כ) spell חשך, “darkness.”
• Hashem brought light through that darkness: “I sat in the darkness of their decrees, and Hashem was my light.” The light of Hanukah that Jews have to this day came because of that earlier darkness.
• Rabbi David Sutton presents this as Rabbenu Yona’s key Hiddush: we must believe that Hashem gives light not in spite of the darkness, but because of it.