Miketz
We had a remarkable Hannukah party – about 80 people came to enjoy a wonderful dinner and most important for us all, Jewish connection. Thank you to everyone who brought food, who helped set up and make the room so beautiful, who helped serve, and of course those who helped pack up tables and chairs. What a wonderful Hannukah celebration.
Our parashah this week, Miketz, brings more dreams into Torah – this time the dreams of Pharaoh. Joseph is called to interpret these dreams, and in doing so, changes the course of his family’s fortunes, first for better, and then of course, for worse, and then, as we know, for better again as Moses is called to lead his people out of Egypt.
In the smallness of our lives, it is impossible for us to recognize the overall arc of what our choices will bring to our families. Miketz reinforces for us, that each choice however minimal, may have a massive impact on the generations that follow us.
Last week we reckoned with how we touch each person in every encounter, for good, for bad; similarly this week each choice we make rolls our history, our own specific torah forward. Dreams often, albeit eventually, can become reality. As we saw the dreams of millions of Jews over many centuries become a reality on May 14, 1948, we light each candle this week, and we pray and hope for our people wherever they might be. Am Yisroel Chai.
Rabbi Lynn Greenhough
Vayigash
December 20, 2023 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk
The very first words in this week’s parasha Vayigash, we read that Judah carefully approached Joseph. The tension has been building amongst the brothers – and is certainly building for Joseph. Eventually Joseph could no longer restrain his emotions and cried out with such a wail that all Egypt heard him! Imagine. In my experience, albeit limited to my days, that kind of wailing cry pours out of us when a loved one dies, or when we hear the news of such a death. It is an uncontrollable wail. Yet Joseph cried out in an emotional tsunami of recognition. Perhaps revealing his identity brought up all the vulnerabilities he had survived since his brothers sold him. Perhaps he was just overcome with an inability to restrain himself from finally revealing his identity to them.More