Parshat Vayigash - 5762

“Zot Chanukat...”

Inauguration, Rededication and Renewal

I’ve always found the pause between Miketz and Vayigash to be one of the most dramatic parts of the Chumash.  At the end of Miketz (Bereshit 44:15), we find “And Yoseph said to them, ‘What is this deed that you have done?...’ “ and the Assistant to the Pharaoh threatens to hold Binyamin as his slave.  At the beginning of Vayigash, we find “And Yehudah approached him...”  Charged with hostility though these words and actions seem, they may conceal a positive element, as indeed the ensuing exchange did lead to the reconciliation of the brothers and ultimately, to the reunification of the family of Yaakov.

When Yaakov learned that Yoseph was still alive, the Torah describes the effect upon him as “The spirit of Yaakov their father came back to life.”  Meaning, according to RASHI (citing Midrash Tanchuma), that the Divine Presence, which had left Yaakov when he entered a long period of depression with the disappearance of Yoseph, returned to him now that his spirit had revived.  When Yaakov realizes and exclaims (Bereshit 45:28), “It is too much!  My son still lives...,” we see before our eyes the reunification of Yaakov’s family.

Yaakov’s reaction is to proceed at once to Beer Sheva, where he inaugurates an Altar (Bereshit 46:1), “So Israel set out with all that he had, and he came to Beer Sheva, where he slaughtered sacrifices to the G-d of his father, Yitzchak,” who had himself lain upon an Altar, and had helped inaugurate a new chapter in the relationship between G-d and Man.

During Chanukah, we read from Parshat Naso of the sacrifices offered by the “Nesiim,” the Princes of the Tribes of Israel, as part of the inauguration of the Mishkan.  That was the portable Sanctuary that served as the Temple in the Wilderness, and for hundreds of years after the People of Israel entered the Holy Land before the First Temple, conceived by King David, was built by his son, King Solomon.  Those sacrifices were all exactly the same.  According to a Midrash, the fact that these sacrifices were identical was not pre-planned, but each Prince thought to bring the same sacrifice independently.  This Midrash lends credence to the idea of the possibility of unity among the People of Israel.  (Incidentally, from the perspective of a Baal Koreh, one who (sometimes) does the public reading of the Torah on Shabbat, Naso is the longest Parshah in the Torah.  However, its length is deceptive, because of the twelve-fold repetition of identical material, except for the name of the “Nasi.”)

The essence of Chanukah seems to include three ideas:  “Inauguration,” “Rededication” and “Renewal.”  “Inauguration” would apply to its use in connection with the Altar in the Mishkan (BaMidbar 7:84), “This was the Inauguration of the Altar, in the day that it was anointed, at the hands of the Princes of Israel.” 

“Rededication” applies to the heroic actions of the Jewish People, led by the Hasmonean Family, in their revolt against the Greeks and the Mityavnim (Jews who’d assimilated into the culture of Greece) ca. 165 BCE.  At the time of the Maccabim, two miracles occurred: the miracle of the one-day supply of oil that lasted for eight days, and the miracle of the military victory over their powerful enemies, that enabled them to rededicate the defiled Temple. 

The idea of “Renewal” would apply to the rejoining of elements of a family that had long been separated, an aspect of “Chanukat HaBayit,” “Renewal” of a family, or household.  This happens in the Chumash with the reuniting of Yoseph and his brothers, as the Bais Yaakov, the House of Israel.  In a larger sense, it also is foretold in this week’s Haftarah (Yechezkel 37:15-28), where Yechezkel speaks of the Return of the Ten Tribes and the reunification of Klal Yisrael (Rabbi Akiva, who argues with Rabbi Eliezer on this point, and claims that the Ten Tribes will not return, must interpret the Haftarah in another way).

It is hoped that when the Third Temple will be built, under the auspices of the Mashiach, all three aspects of Chanukah will be fulfilled.  “Inauguration” of an Eternal Temple, that has the blessings of HaShem and all the nations, that will be the spiritual center of the world.  It will also represent the “Rededication” of the Temples erected by the Jewish people in the course of their tumultuous history, in the hope that those structures would indeed be Eternal.  The great event of the erection of the Third Temple will occur in a time of “Renewal” and Reconciliation of the Jewish People; a time of “Kibbutz Galuyot,” Ingathering of the Exiles and, according to the plain meaning of Scripture, a time of Return for the Ten Tribes.

Another aspect of the anticipated Reunification and Renewal will be that of the Jewish people and the Land of Israel; as Yechezkel prophecies (Yechezkel 37:21), “Thus says the L-rd G-d, ‘Behold! I will take the Children of Israel from the nations where they have gone, and I shall gather them from around, and bring them into their own land.’ “  And the Haftarah of Vayigash concludes (Yechezkel 37:26-27), “I shall seal a covenant of peace with them,... and I shall place My Sanctuary among them forever.  My Presence shall be with them, and I shall be for a G-d unto them, and they shall be unto Me for a People.”

Separation from HaShem has been a time of “mourning” for the Jewish People for more than the last two thousand years.  But now HaShem will end their mourning, as the next-to-last verse in “Mizmor Shir Chanukat HaBayit LeDavid,” a Psalm traditionally sung on Chanukah (Tehilim 30:12), testifies:   “You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness.”

Rabbi Pinchas Frankel

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