With my parents in Israel, I was out of Yeshiva and had no time to prepare or write anything. However, I am sending a devar Torah I wrote for the Pearlstone Shabbaton last year but which I never gave because the Shabbaton was postponed. Looking back, I see there are things I would change but still, I feel it is a good devar Torah.

Chanukah Sameach [although at the time of this posting, it is no longer Chanukah),
Mordechai


Dreams are very significant in both this week's and last week's Torah portions. Both Joseph and Pharaoh dream two dreams but there are several significant differences between them. A quick summery of the dreams:



Joseph and his brothers are binding sheaves in the field when the brothers' sheaves bowed down to Joseph's sheaf. In the second dream, Joseph sees the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowing down to him.



Pharaoh is standing by the Nile when seven healthy cows emerge from the river only to see seven ugly and lean cows come out of the river and gobbled down the healthy cows. Pharaoh told Joseph that after they ate the healthy cows, the lean cows still looked terrible. In his second dream, he sees good ears of grain growing on one stalk but seven think ears of grain popped out of the ground and swallowed up the good ears of grain.



The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, said that these dreams represented two diametrically opposed world views. Joseph's dream begins with an image of labor, as it says

" וְהִנֵּה אֲנַחְנוּ מְאַלְּמִים אֲלֻמִּים, בְּתוֹךְ הַשָּׂדֶה" "we were binging sheaves in the field." Pharaoh on the other hand is standing on the bank of the Nile when the cows emerge from the water; no effort was involved. Next, Joseph's dreams involve a progression of lower forms to higher forms; first they have individual ears of grain which are tied into bundles and then in the next dream, instead of grain we have celestial objects. Pharaoh goes from healthy cows to sick cows to grain to frail grain. Joseph works and merits more and more Pharaoh who expects everything to be provided watches everything vanish.



We can learn an important lesson from all this. When a person believes that he or she can accomplish something without effort, that person can be sure that this belief comes from our animal soul, our unspiritual side, which is more commonly referred to as the Yetzer HaRah or evil inclination. It is true that one can benefit without labor just as Pharaoh saw the seven healthy cows. However, it is a scientific fact that cows don't grow in rivers; any benefit gained without effort is not real and in the end, all the fake benefits will disappear.



I believe that Chanukah is the celebration of the Jewish world view over the world view of those who answer to their Yetzer HaRah.



It is a historic fact that the Greeks' goal was to Hellenize the Jews and assimilate them into the Greek culture which is why in Al HaNisim, the special liturgical addition for Chanukah, we say that the Greeks rose up against Israel "LiHashkicham Toratecha – to make Israel forget [G-d's] Torah."



But wait a minute! The Greeks appreciated valued the wisdom and beauty of the Torah, so much so that Ptolemy II forced the sages to translate the Torah into Greek. And mind you, it did not just sit on their bookshelf; the Talmud is filled with debates between Rabbis and Philosophers regarding minutiae of the Torah.



The difference between these philosophers and Rabbis is that for the philosophers, everything was intellectual but for the Rabbis, it was a Torat Chaim, a sacred Torah meant to be lived. The Greeks had no problems with Jews studying torah as long as it was not viewed as the Torah, a spiritual document which transforms our souls and an instruction manual for bringing G-d's Presence into the world.



This is why the Greek's defiled the oil rather than simply destroying it. The flames from the Temple's Menorah represent the Torah and it was the Greek's goal to force the Jews to light the Menorah with impure oil. Had the Maccabees lost faith and caused the flames to burn with the defiled oil, they would have corrupted the Torah with unspiritual and unG-dly influences. No longer would the light of the Menorah shine forth brining G-d's Presence into the world. Rather, it would be nothing but a dead and meaningless symbol.

Although today there are many, both outside and sadly even within the Jewish community, who would have us view Torah as a lifeless document, the lights of Chanukah remind us what Torah really is. We must emulate Joseph and work to safeguard the true essence of the Torah just as the Maccabees did 2160 years ago.

[My Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Scott Kahn shlita, gives a good example: the Chanukah song Mi Yomallel Gevurot Yisrael. The song takes phrases and passages from Tanach and rabbinic literature referring to the greatness of G-d and changes and twists them around to make them refer to man. I had always sung this song not realising the unJewish nature of its ideas and its sinister form of composition.]