Author: Shlomo Bar-Ayal

Joseph wants the Jews to be far away from the center of Egyptian culture. He knew the dangers of living in that culture and that it would be dangerous for them spiritually.

When Joseph tells his brothers not to worry about what they did since it was God’s plan that he be sold into Egyptian slavery it leads to the question does man have free will.

The brothers should have realized that something was amiss by the hints that Joseph dropped until he revealed himself to them. They missed the hints. This teaches us to pay attention to the details.

Joseph wants to know if his brothers are truly repentant for what they did to him. The way to test them is to put them into the same position and see if they would behave differently.

Judah becomes the leader of the brothers due to his taking on personal responsibility for the safety of all of them. That is the true meaning of leadership.

The story of Hanukah is that the anti-Jewish forces did not want to kill the Jews but that they should not live as Jews. By us living as Jews is our ultimate victory and their ultimate defeat.

In this week’s portion we have the beginning of the brother reuniting as a family. The striking this is that the Hashmonaim were always united in their mission to save the Jewish people.

The story of Hanukah is the story of wisdom over knowledge. The Greeks had a lot of knowledge but very little wisdom. The Jews had wisdom based on the Bible.

While we recognize that God controls the world we are commanded not to rely of miracles in our lives. God wants us to act. Once we act God will act, not before.

Hanukah was not a war between the Jews and the Greeks but a war against the immorality of the day.