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Light, Life, and Love

12/11/2020 12:24:55 PM

Dec11

Shabbat Shalom! This week's Torah portion is Parashat Vayeshev, in which we begin the narrative around Joseph, from his arrogant beginning to his faithful and humble days in slavery and in prison.

Something that always strikes me about Joseph, is his faith. He credits his dream interpretations to God, he is sure of Divine strength and salvation, and trusts in a better future despite his bad current circumstances. All the while, God is pretty absent from the narrative itself. God never speaks to Joseph the way God speaks to Jacob and Abraham in earlier parts of the Torah, or Moses later. Joseph has to rely on his own wits and strength, but he finds the power to do so through his faith.

Similarly, the Maccabees fought off a much larger army (setting aside for the moment the issues of the intra-Jewish fighting they were also committing). They did so for the sake of their faith and their devotion to God, and surely they felt emboldened by that, but the story of the Maccabees is again pretty lacking in Divine intervention. Even the miracle of the oil, seemingly a later invention of the early rabbis who were uncomfortable with the Maccabean revolt for a few reasons, doesn't explicitly mention God. It's a passive miracle, that could have natural or scientific explanations as well.

This winter, may you draw up strength, wisdom, boldness, humility, righteousness, patience, and wholeness from the Divine sparks within and all around you, trusting in your own abilities to get through dark times and bring light to the world.

Fri, March 29 2024 19 Adar II 5784