This Shabbat Parashat Miketz we read about the famous story of Pharaoh’s dream, the seven fat cows that swallowed the seven thin cows and about the other dream of the good grains and opposite them the empty grains.  Yosef succeeds in solving Pharaoh’s dreams and becomes Pharaoh’s deputy, who controls all the government moves in Egypt.

What is the connection between Parshat Miketz and Hanukkah’s miracle and the Maccabees family?

Let’s imagine that in the town of Modi’in they read from the Torah that Shabbat, before the outbreak of the rebellion, the Parshat of Dreams and their interpretations Parshat “Miktez”.  On the way home from the synagogue, after the Shabbat prayer, the father and the sons had a conversation about the Parasha.  One of the boys said: “Not only did Joseph have dreams, I also have one dream that returns every night.”  The father and sons asked the dreamer to tell his dream, but he refused, claiming that he still had no solution to his dream. Matityahu HaCohen said that he has little experience in interpreting dreams…

So, the dreamer said: “In my dream I am standing, girded with a cloth vest, by the golden lamp in the temple and arranging the wicks in the cups.”  When Judah the Maccabee heard the dream, he jumped up and shouted: “Your dream completes my dream! I have been dreaming for some time that we are going to rebel against the Hellenistic rule, conquer Jerusalem and purify the Temple.”  Father Matityahu practically summed up the dreams of the two sons by saying: “Tomorrow or the day after, representatives of the central government from Jerusalem will come to Modi’in. Knowing what happened in other villages, I am sure they will come with a statue of Zeus and an altar and ask one of the dignitaries to make a sacrifice for the idol. We must be prepared in order to fight the soldiers of the Greek Syrian government, who are trying to divert us from our Jewish faith.”

The continuation of the story is no longer imaginary but a historical fact.  This is what we read in history books.

The dream of Matityahu and his sons to live a Jewish spiritual life independence and undisturbed, while fighting in the legions of the Seleucid-Hellenistic Empire, became to a new dream of political independence, and not only religious independency.  The sons and grandsons of Shimon, Judah the Maccabees’ brother, are the kings of the Hasmonean dynasty who reigned from 167 to 37 BC.

The dream of the sons of Matityahu did come true: Jerusalem was conquered, the temple was purified, and the Hellenistic kingdom of Syria withdrew, initially from the land of Judah and later from all of Israel.  To commemorate this miraculous event, we celebrate the Hanukkah holiday these days and continue what Judah the Maccabee established upon the completion of the temple’s purification, to light the Hanukkah candles in memory of the miracle that occurred.

The only problem that arises from this collection of stories of heroism is that the Hasmoneans did not know how to preserve the independence they achieved in the war, and the Second Kingdom of Israel lost its independence, a situation that continued until the nation won and regained its independence in the war of liberation of 1948.

In these days, of struggles between right and left, religious and secular, we must ask the obvious question: What are we doing so that the dream of the generations for the return of Zion and the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel will not die out, what are we doing so that the end of the third kingdom of Israel will not be similar to the end of the second kingdom?

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Refael Cohen