Vayeishev: 5784 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld: Where is Chanukah alluded to in Parshas Vayeishev? And also: an interesting explanation of the interpretation of Yosef's brothers' dreams. At the conclusion of Rabbi Betzalel…

00:00 Speaker 1 Please. We all know the story of the elderly woman who read the story of Yosef in Parshas Vayeishev—how his brothers seized him and sold him—and cried over what they had done to him. The next year, she read it again and said, “He deserved it.” Why? “You already knew what they were going to do to you, so why did you go?” People tell this as a joke. But there really is a question here. It says that Yosef’s brothers hated him: “His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.” Then he went and told them about his dream: “I had a dream,” and so on. Didn’t he sense that they hated him? You had a dream? Fine, keep it to yourself. Why come and tell your brothers? You know they hate you, so why add fuel to the fire? There’s a very interesting explanation of why he told them. The Gemara in Berachos says that a dream follows its interpretation—the way the interpreter interprets it. Yosef came and told them the dream. He didn’t say, “I’m going to reign over you.” Who interpreted it for him?

01:36 Speaker 2 His brothers.

01:37 Speaker 1 His brothers interpreted it for him. They said, “Will you indeed reign over us? Will you indeed rule over us?” He wanted them to interpret it that way, and, how do you put it, he got them to—and they interpreted it for him. Then we see, “He dreamed yet another dream,” and it says, “He told it to his brothers,” right? It doesn’t say there that they responded. They didn’t say anything. They realized that by saying something, they would help bring the dream to fulfillment. But what does it say next? “He told his father and his brothers,” and his father said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow down to you to the ground?” So his father interpreted the dream for him. That was Yosef’s cleverness: he wanted the dream he had dreamed to be interpreted in that way. First he told his brothers, and they gave the dream its interpretation. Afterward, when he told them the next dream, they no longer wanted to do that. But his father interpreted it for him. Parshas Vayeishev is connected to Chanukah. What hint to Chanukah is there in Parshas Vayeishev? All the verses in Parshas Vayeishev begin with the letter vav. Pay attention—all the verses. There are eight verses in Parshas Vayeishev that do not begin with a vav. That’s a hint to the eight days of Chanukah. Throughout the parsha, the verses begin with a vav; there are eight that don’t. And the miracles of Chanukah—what we say in Al Hanissim about the miracles and wonders, the deliverance, salvations and wonders You performed for our ancestors “in those days, at this time”—are so relevant now. We need that “at this time.” Not only what You did for our ancestors, but also now, in the situation we find ourselves in, in a state of war. Baruch Hashem, here in Machane Chabad we

03:38 Speaker 1 are sitting peacefully and life is going on as usual. But hundreds of thousands of Jews are fighting. There are still soldiers being held captive, and so on. We need miracles at this time. We need them. It’s very important. And through the mitzvah of Chanukah, which adds light to the world, with Hashem’s help there will be a true Geulah for all the Jewish people.

04:02 Speaker 3 Amen, amen.