Parshas Miketz
By Rabbi Dovid Zauderer
A “takeaway†is a main point or key message to be learned or understood from something experienced or observed.
A mashal (Hebrew: משל) is a short parable with a moral lesson or religious allegory called a nimshal.
Chanukah is almost over, with perhaps only an extra five pounds around our stomachs from all the latkes and jelly doughnuts.to show for it.
Therefore I think it is important to share with all of you one takeaway mashal and message for Chanukah that we can “take away†with us through the cold, dark winter and beyond…
In his weekly Torah Wellsprings (Collected Thoughts from Rabbi Elimelech Biderman shlitâ€a on Vayeishev – Chanuka 5781), Rabbi Biderman tells the following powerful mashal:
Judges at an art competition were ready to proclaim the artist who made a true-to-life painting of fruit and grains as the winner. His painting was so true-to-life, it even tricked the birds, as they repeatedly pecked at the fruits and grains displayed on the canvas.
One artist came to the judges and said, "You can't proclaim him the winner before you look at my painting." He pointed to a curtain on the side of the room, where his artwork lay. The judges replied, "Open the curtains so we can see your painting.†“I prefer someone else opens the curtain.†One judge tried to open the curtain, but then he realized that there was no curtain there, at all. It was a painting of a curtain. The judges said, “The other artist fooled birds. Your work fooled humans! You win the competition!â€
The ‘nimshal’ is, there are artists who can fool birds, and there are artists who can even fool humans, but G-d’s artwork fools almost everyone. The world seems to be running by nature, and people don’t realize that it is just a painting.
Therefore, it states in the Torah: “v’ein Tzur keilokeinu – and there is no ‘Tzur’ (Rock) like our G-d (see Samuel ll 2:2), and the Sages in the Talmud (Megillah 14a) read it: “and there is no ‘Tzayar’,(Artist) like our G-dâ€. Only G-d can fool the entire world with this ‘magnificent painting’ that He created and that we all live in!
The victory of the Maccabees over the Assyrian-Greeks, which the Chanukah holiday commemorates, was not, as is commonly thought today, a purely physical battle in which the mighty and Herculean warrior, Judah Maccabee, with pure, brute strength, defeated the entire Greek army and chased them out of the Temple in Jerusalem. (Don't get me wrong - that's a great story line, and it would make for a really good action movie or comic book series …. but it is historically inaccurate.)
The clash between the Jewish nation and the occupying Hellenist forces and the ensuing victory of the Hasmonean priests was far more than a military victory - it was the victory of the Torah, representing the Divine element of creation, over the then-prevalent Greek culture, which taught that Nature ruled above all, and that science and the human mind was all that one needed in order to understand this world and to reach perfection. Judah Maccabee might have been one tough cookie, but tradition tells us that it wasn't his muscle that won the battle against the Greek oppressors, but rather his firm faith in the True Cause of all of nature - the Al-mighty G-d.
This explains the symbolism of the dreidel (spinning top) that is traditionally played on Chanukah. The dreidel has four sides, representing the four corners of the earth, the natural world as we know it. One can spin the dreidel, and, while it is spinning, give the impression that it is spinning by itself. The spinner might be hidden from view, so that, to the casual observer, it looks like the dreidel is going 'round and 'round all by itself! Of course, upon closer inspection, one can readily figure out that someone had originally spun the dreidel and was there the whole time.
The Greeks of old, as well as some scientists of today, have all been fooled by ‘Nature’ – and they would have us share their mistaken belief that this great big world of ours is spinning all by itself, that No One is really there spinning it, partially hidden from view.
So we spin the dreidel, to illustrate and proclaim that although, at first glance, the world appears to be spinning all by itself - if you take a closer look, you can see that G-d is, and always was, right there beneath the surface, just waiting to be acknowledged for His wonderful creations. He originally spun this great big world, and He remains here - albeit partially hidden from view - very much "on top" of the world.
As we end the holiday of Chanukah this Friday evening, let us take away with us this powerful takeaway and never forget the Amazing Artist Who created this beautiful world that we inhabit, and Who continues to run it hidden from view but very much there. Truly there is no Artist like G-d!
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