Chevre, this week’s parsha is Miketz (מִקֵּ֖ץ) and it’s Chanukah (חֲנוּכָּה). This week we have a very rapid story. Paroah has a couple of dreams, Yosef is brought in to interpret those dreams. He not only interprets the dreams, but gives a solution. The interpretation is that there will be 7 good years followed by 7 years of famine and that someone should be put in charge to collect the excess of the 7 good years to be used for the 7 famine years. Paroah puts Yosef in charge and he goes from the dungeon to the 2nd most powerful person in Egypt. (Or like from the garage to XYZ tech company that everyone can’t live without).

The famine reaches Israel and the brothers come down to buy food, but Yosef is unrecognizable and only speaking Egyptian. He is harsh to them and calls them spies. He keeps Shimon as a hostage and secretly returns the money to them in the sacks of their food. He also tells them that they can’t come back without Binyamin. The brothers use up the food and must return with Binyamin. Valuables are placed in the sack of Binyamin and he is caught with them. When confronted by Yosef, Yehuda stands up for him. And the parsha ends in a cliff hanger.

This scenario of years of plenty and years of famine remind me of what we have had of late. First we had Covid and then we came out of it. Now we are 14 months into the war. Eventually, we will come out of this as well. Israeli startups are suffering, currently, from lack of manpower since so many of their people have spent 200+ days in the army. We will come out of this together and The Nation of Israel will be stronger for it. Shabbat Shalom. Chanukah Sameach.