Mikeitz: 5784 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld with the weekly insight for 'Zos Chanukah' and its connection to the weekly parsha. Following the weekly Daf Yomi class of Rabbi Betzalel Mizrachi in Nachlah. Watch:

00:00 Speaker 1 Please. We’re at Zos Chanukah, the last day of Chanukah, so let’s start with a little joke. They tell a story about one of the great Torah scholars who, as a child, was learning in cheder. It was near the end of Chanukah, and the teacher said that if the children found an allusion to the Chanukah candles in the Torah, he would let them out early. The boy was clever, and he said, “There’s an explicit verse: ‘The snare broke, and we escaped.’” “Snare” in Hebrew is pach, spelled peh-ches, which adds up to eighty-eight. “Broke” means half of that: forty-four. All the Chanukah candles together, including the shamash candles, add up to forty-four. “The snare broke, and we escaped.” So, of course, the teacher let them out. We know the Midrash quoted in the bar mitzvah maamar: “He tells His words to Yaakov, His statutes and judgments to Yisroel”—what He does Himself, He tells His children to do. Since it’s a Jewish custom to give Chanukah gelt, Hakadosh Boruch Hu certainly does that too. He needs to give His children Chanukah gelt. But we have to ask for it. What does Hakadosh Boruch Hu give us? Children, life, and ample sustenance—everything in abundance. Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives us that. So let’s ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu to give us Chanukah gelt, and above all, our main request is that He give us the true and complete Geulah very soon. And something from the weekly parsha, also by way of a little joke. It says that when the brothers came to Egypt and brought Binyamin with them, they came to Yosef, and “he asked after their welfare. He said, ‘Is your elderly father, of whom you spoke, well? Is he still alive?’” They said, “He is still alive.” “He lifted his eyes and saw Binyamin, his brother, his mother’s son. And he said, ‘Is this your younger brother of whom you spoke to me?’” They had been talking all along about having a younger brother. When Binyamin arrives, Yosef asks him, “Do you have children?”

02:17 Speaker 1 Yosef asks Binyamin, and he says, “Yes, I have ten sons.” Ten—he has ten sons. “And what are their names?” So he gives him the names: “Achi and Rei[unclear], Becher, Ashbel, Achi and Rosh, Muppim, Chuppim, Ard.” And Yosef asks him, “What are these names?” He says, “They’re all named for my brother who disappeared, who wasn’t at my wedding—everything is connected to my brother.” Then Yosef asks the brothers, “So this is your younger brother of whom you spoke to me? You said you had a younger brother, and now you bring me a brother who already has ten sons! ‘Is this your younger brother of whom you spoke to me? May G-d be gracious to you, my son.’” May we have good news. May we hear good news.

03:08 Speaker 2 Amen, amen.