Miketz opens with Joseph rising from the darkness of prison to great light, while Hanukkah celebrates the end of darkness with the Maccabean rise to power.
When we pray and seek salvation, we must remember the two foundational aspects of prayer: God’s mercies are the goal to which we aspire; and God can indeed deliver us from any trouble.
From this broken place, these dire straits, we call out to the Blessed One to show us the good and to perform miracles for us in this place, our homeland.
This most enigmatic encounter of Jacob wrestling with a mystery “man” arouses many questions. Who is this unnamed adversary with whom Jacob struggles all night until the break of dawn?
Why does Jacob change the name given by Rachel, and what is the significance of the new name he bestows upon his son?
The Zohar says that Jacob’s ladder is a metaphor for the experience of prayer. Our job is to climb the ladder of prayer rung by rung until we reach where “the Lord was standing over him.”
In this time, confronted by evil, may we find the strength to keep digging deeper and deeper into the wellsprings of our faith.
As Jews of faith, we believe with certainty that history has a direction, and we exist within a long process whose end is the complete redemption of all humanity.
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