Parashat Miketz

Shabbat Chanukah

Our haftarah this Shabbat, Shabbat Chanukah, is taken from Sefer Zecharya. The navi served his people in the fifth century BCE and assured the nation that Hashem would return to Israel through their rebuilding of His Mikdash. This promise explains the exultant pesukim that open Zecharya’s message and reflect the very hopes and dreams of that generation, the generation of Jews returning from the Babylonian exile and struggling to rebuild the Beit Hamikdash.

The prophet’s promise of their success in rebuilding the Beit Hamikdash was a welcome message to the nation, as it echoed the exact promise made by Chaggai—a contemporary of Zecharya—who urged the returnees to build Bayit Sheni (The Second Temple.). It was Chaggai who promised the returnees that Hashem “v’ertzeh bo v’ikavda”—would be pleased with the Mikdash and be honored (through it), even though it would not equal the grandeur and opulence of the former Mikdash. Our Rabbis’ choice of this nevuah reflects their belief that the rededication of the purified Beit Hamikdash by the Chashmonaim was a form of “renewal” of Bayit Sheni by the returning exiles of Chaggai’s time. Our Tannaim (early rabbinic scholars) regarded both events to be the fulfillment of the promised return of Hashem’s presence to Yerushalayim.

The second vision of the navi, the image of the Menorah and its lights, creates the obvious connection to Shabbat Chanukah and is therefore the most familiar reason given as to why the haftarah was chosen to be read on Chanukah.

These two visions are certainly convincing links to Chanukah, but we would be remiss in our study were we to ignore the introductory section Zecharya’s nevuah that, at first glance, does not seem to be connected to the holiday at all. The prophet describes a scene in which the “שטן” stands to the right of Yehoshua, the Kohen Gadol, condemning him and preventing him from returning the sacrificial rite to the Temple. Chazal also saw this as a parallel to Chanukah and the many obstacles that faced the Chashmonaim hindering their efforts to rededicate the defiled Mikdash. God Himself responds by defending Yehoshua and reprimanding the “שטן” for daring to attack one who had “survived a conflagration” (“ud mutzal ne’eish”).

I would submit that Hashem’s message was directed, not to the Kohen Gadol alone, but to his entire generation. Throughout his sefer, Zecharya speaks about the shortcomings of this generation in an effort to have them repair their ways—criticism that could easily have the people believe that their efforts to rebuild Jewish life once more was doomed to failure. For that reason, God teaches Yehoshua and His entire nation that the promised redemption would arrive—despite their sins—as Hashem fully understands the great suffering Israel has endured.

God’s message should echo in our ears for His condemnation of the “שטן” applies to all those who fail to stand behind Hashem’s nation when they struggle to return and rebuild. He denounces those who criticize the “ud mutzal me’esh,” the generation of survivors, those who rebuild their own lives in their homeland and who thirst to return to God and His Torah by reestablishing yeshivot and batei knesset!

Who, after all, would dare to censure those who marched from the Holocaust to independence, from the ghettos of Europe to the army of Israel? Could there be anyone so insensitive as to chastise the generation who, like that of Chaggai, struggles against enemies who endeavor to chase them out of their land? And would we ever expect to find any moral being who would fight to deny those threatened with annihilation, ch”v, the right to defend themselves?

Would anyone ever do such a thing? Only adherents to the followers of Satanic hatred!

In short, the message for Chanukah is a message for all time. So, when we see these supporters of evil who look to overturn morality and decency, we can be confident that “yig’ar b’cha Hashem”— God will denounce them and will continue to defend the “ud mutzal me’esh”!

Rabbi Neil Winkler is the rabbi emeritus of the Young Israel of Fort Lee, and now lives in Israel.